


World enough and time

by Honey_Rae_Pluto



Category: Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018), Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005), Queen (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Doctor Who Fusion, Angst, Doctor Who References, Episode: s01e01 Rose, Episode: s01e06 Dalek, Episode: s01e07 The Long Game, Episode: s05e02 The Beast Below, Fluff, M/M, This Is Not Going To Go The Way You Think, Time Travel, noddy holder
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:02:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 23,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25510276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Honey_Rae_Pluto/pseuds/Honey_Rae_Pluto
Summary: Roger is just a typical council estate guy, working to get through the week, chips on Friday nights, no qualifications and no future.Until a certain mad man with a box flips his life
Relationships: Brian May/Freddie Mercury, Chris "Crystal" Taylor/Roger Taylor, Freddie Mercury/Roger Taylor, John Deacon/Roger Taylor
Comments: 7
Kudos: 23





	1. Roger - One

Roger smacked his alarm clock grumpily, seven in the morning was too early for him. He got dressed quickly, needing to get to work at his shit job. Not that there was much else out there, as his mum kept saying.

Living on the Powell estate was as glamorous as it sounded, still he had a job, and Crystal did too - it wouldn't be too many more years before he moved out.

He snatched his coat as he kissed Winifred goodbye.

He worked a nine to five at Hendrix Department store, a bougie clothes shop in central London that seemed to attract the chavs. Not that he wasn't a chav, but he at least tried to look a bit less orange.

It was a nice, if mundane, routine. Get up, go to work, meet Crystal for lunch (he was mechanic so it wasn't too hard to meet up), go back to work, go home, dinner, bed.

Didn't seem like life would ever be much more than that.

He shifted the piles of clothes around the display, closing time was in five minutes and the last nagging customers were finally buggering off.

"This is a customer announcement. The store will be closing in five minutes. Thank you." Roger mimed along with it, having heard those words half a million times. 

Slowly he got up, he had to visit the store manager, who seemed to live in the basement rather than do anything.

He grabbed the bag he had for his manager, hopefully he'd get an easy week since the old guy won.

"Wilson? Wilson, I've got the lottery money. Wilson, are you there?" Roger wondered around. Not like him to be late for money. "I can't hang about 'cos they're closing the shop. Wilson! Oh, come on."

Roger huffed, but a clattering down the corridor caught his attention, was the manager trying to be funny? It would be a first.

"Hello? Hello, Wilson, it's Roger. Hello? Wilson?"

The blond was nearly at his wits end, looking through boxes of clothes and dummies, random mannequin body parts. No Wilson though.

The door slammed behind him, someone was being a git, whether it was Wilson or not. He dashed back at it, trying to get it open. Locked. Completely. "You're kidding me. Is that someone mucking about? Who is it?"

He could hear some footsteps now, turning to see shop dummies walking towards him.

"Yeah, you got me. Very funny."

They didn't seem to stop, some sick joke that might go too far was his first instinct. Roger didn't think they were malicious, but practical jokes could end badly.

"Right, I've got the joke. Who's idea was this? Is it Derek's? Is it? Derek, is this you?"

There was more now, twenty odd, backing him up to the wall. The one closest to him raised its arm, it was going to hit him, it'd probably knock him out.

Roger could feel himself start to hyperventilate, he'd actually get hurt, or worse. God knows.

But then a hand grabbed his wrist.

"Run."

***

The man pulled him along, and Roger followed blindly. The dummies were still behind them, trying to grab them even as they found a lift. 

Roger stared as the stranger calmly pressed the up button, seemingly undeterred by the mannequin hand that reached through the doors at them. He just pulled the arm off of it nonchalantly.

"You pulled his arm off." Roger stayed, at a loss for what to say.

"Yep. Plastic." The strange man knocked on the arm.

"Very clever. Nice trick! Who were they then, students? Is this a student thing or what?"

"Why would they be students?"

"I don't know." Roger shrugged, frowning at the man.

"Well, you said it. Why students?" The man asked, a small grin peaking through. He was dressed up in white, a red old fashioned dress coat made of silky looking material and some platforms. Very different from Roger's low jeans and hoodie look.

"'Cos to get that many people dressed up and being silly, they got to be students."

"That makes sense. Well done." The man answered condescendingly.

"Thanks-"

"They're not students."

"Whoever they are, when Wilson finds them, he's going to call the police." Roger told him, trying to get some control back in the conversation.

"Who's Wilson?"

"The manager."

"Wilson's dead." The man told him curtly, stepping out of the elevator, not looking behind him as he found the back door outside.

Roger frowned, following him again. It annoyed him that the guy didn't seem bothered in the slightest - made him wonder if perhaps he'd done it - but nothing made sense and the bloke seemed to have some answers.

"That's just not funny. That's sick!" Roger caught up to him (the dark haired man had stopped by the electrical outlets for the lift), fully prepared to give him a bollocking.

"Hold on." He ignored the blond, taking out the sonic, "Mind your eyes".

"I've had enough of this now." Roger said coldly, just to be ignored again while the strange device buzzed and seemed to do something to the lift.

"Who are you, then? Who's that lot down there?" Roger snapped at him, "I said, who are they?"

The mystery man sighed, clearly bored of him, "They're made of plastic. Living plastic creatures. They're being controlled by a relay device in the roof, which would be a great big problem if I didn't have this." He waved a second device at Roger, "So, I'm going to go up there and blow them up, and I might well die in the process, but don't worry about me. No, you go home. Go on. Go and have your lovely beans on toast. Don't tell anyone about this, because if you do, you'll get them killed." 

He shut the door at that, leaving Roger outside and speechless. Until he opened it again. "I'm the Doctor, by the way. What's your name?"

"Roger."

"Nice to meet you, Roger. Run for your life!"

Roger watched him slam the door again, numbly walking down the street. He eyed the mannequins nervously, stumbling out onto the road a few times, nearly becoming a bonnet decoration to several cars and buses.

He was going to call Chris, but what would he even say? Some plastic attacked him and a mad man saved him? Maybe he had imagined it - just too tired or going mental. Who knows, as long as nothing else hap-

The explosion behind him seemed to shake the earth, all the windows smashed at once on Hendrix's, the whole upper floor crumbled. Roger didn't look at it again as he ran, just wanting to go home.

He certainly didn't notice the blue box parked on the edge of his street.

***

"... whole of Central London has been closed off as police investigate the fire…"

"...Early reports indicate…"

"...Deal or no deal?..."

"...Breaking news…"

Roger flicked through the channels tiredly, he just wanted today to end. He didn't want to think about it any more. Not that his mum was going to let that happen.

"I know. It's on the telly. It's everywhere." Winifred yapped down the phone, "He's lucky to be alive. Honestly, it's aged him. Skin like an old bible. Walking in now you'd think I was his daughter. Oh, and here's himself."

Winifred tutted down the phone when Crystal arrived. Normally seeing him Roger would cheer up, Crystal was his boyfriend after all. But right now it was just another voice annoying him.

"I've been phoning your mobile." Crystal told him, instantly by his side, "You could've been dead. It's on the news and everything. I can't believe that your shop went up!"

"I'm all right, honestly, I'm fine! Don't make a fuss." Roger sighed, shifting unwillingly to make room for him.

"Well, what happened?" Chris asked.

"I don't know."

"What was it though? What caused it?"

"I wasn't in the shop, Chris. I was outside. I didn't see anything."

"It's Debbie on the end." Winifred told him half excitedly, "She knows a man on the Mirror. Five hundred quid for an interview."

"Oh that's brilliant! Give it here." Roger grabbed the phone, tapping the hang up button and tossing it down beside him.

"Well, you've got to find some way of making money. Your job's kaput and I'm not bailing you out." His mum looked serious about it, but right now it didn't matter. Winifred's phone rang again, giving Roger some moments away from the glare. "Bev! He's alive. I've told him, sue for compensation. He was within seconds of death."

"What're you drinking, tea?" Crystal asked, taking the mug away from him, "Nah, nah, that's no good, that's no good. You're in shock. You need something stronger."

"I'm all right."

"Now, come on, you deserve a proper drink. We're going down the pub, you and me. My treat. How about it?" Crystal smiled, rubbing his arm.

"Is there a match on?" Roger asked, full well knowing the Chelsea game was on tonight.

"No, I'm just thinking about you, babe."

"There's a match on, ain't there."

"That's not the point, but we could catch the last five minutes." Crystal suggested, trying to make puppy eyes at him.

"Go on, then. I'm fine, really. Go. Get rid of that." Roger shrugs him off, handing him the dummy's arm that he'd had since the lift.

"Bye, bye." Crystal give him a quick kiss, pretending to be throttled by the arm. It made Roger smile a little before turning back to the telly, that was something at least.

"Fire then spread throughout the store." The news was still on in the background, "Fifteen fire crews are in attendance though it's thought there is very little chance of saving the infrastructure."

***

Seven was still too early to be getting up, Roger thought dazedly as he slacked the alarm-

"There's no point in getting up, sweetheart." Winifred called through from the kitchen, the smell of burnt toast wafting through, "You've got no job to go to."

Yesterday's strange events hit him weirdly, like they hadn't happened to him. Roger felt so detached from it all, the mannequins, the fire… the doctor. He hadn't stopped to think about thean yet, but who was he? He caused the explosion now he thought about it. The doctor probably got caught up in the flames.

"There's Finch's. You could try them." Roger's mum had kept talking, he realised, "They've always got jobs."

"Oh, great. The butchers." He scoffed.

"Well, it might do you good. That shop was giving you airs and graces. And I'm not joking about compensation." Roger stopped listening again, "You've had genuine shock and trauma. Arianna got two thousand quid off the council just because the old man behind the desk said she looked Greek! I know she is Greek, but that's not the point. It was a valid claim."

The rattling by the door caught his attention, fucking car down the road trying to get in again.

"Mum, you're such a liar. I told you to nail that cat flap down. We're going to get strays."

"I did it weeks back!" Winifred replied, slightly annoyed at being cut off like that.

"No, you thought about it." Roger got up, he'd have to find tape or something to pin it temporarily. He knelt by it, noticing the screws on the floor.

So it had been pinned.

The blond frowned, going to open the flap. It couldn't possibly be a cat, could it? Just as his fingers were about to touch it, it opened on the other side.

Roger flinched back, staring eye to eye with the man from yesterday. The doctor.

"What're you doing here?" He asked, brown eyes narrowing on him.

"I live here." Roger sniped back, sort of angry already. He got up to open the door properly.

"Well, what do you do that for?" 

"Because I do. I'm only at home because someone blew up my job."

"I must have got the wrong signal. You're not plastic, are you?" The doctor knocked not too gently on his forehead, "No, bonehead. Bye, then."

"You. Inside. Right now." Roger grabbed his arm before he could disappear again.

He needed answers and now.

"Who is it?" Winifred called through again, opening the door to have a look at the bloke.

"It's about last night. He's part of the inquiry. Give us ten minutes." Roger told her, letting the man go and moving ahead to the living room.

"She deserves compensation." Win nearly barked at the doctor who had been following behind a little disgruntled, stopping awkwardly outside Winifred's bedroom. 

"Oh, we're talking millions." The Doctor replied, turning to look around.

Win, who looked a lot like Roger with the same blonde hair and blue eyes was still getting dressed, make up half done. She seemed kind enough, if a little on the talkative side. She didn't seem that old, late thirties perhaps, but her expression was older than her face.

"I'm in my dressing gown." She stated, twirling the tie of it.

"Yes, you are." The doctor agreed plainly. 

"There's a strange man in my bedroom." 

"Yes, there is." He was hoping she'd leave off him, it wasn't a cheap porno and it certainly wasn't why he was here.

"Well, anything could happen."

"No." He shot away quickly, avoiding Winifred's face.

***

"Don't mind the mess. Do you want a coffee?" Roger shuffled around trying to get numbers and bits of information together. 

"Might as well, thanks. Just milk."

"We should go to the police. Seriously. Both of us." Roger told him, he wasn't interested in the money or whatever, but if people were going to get hurt by those mannequins then they needed to get the police involved.

The dark haired man looked around bored, picking up some random magazine and ignoring Roger. He flicked through it, normal earth stuff, human stuff, "That couple won't last, he's gay and she's an alien."

"I'm not blaming you, even if it was just some sort of joke that went wrong." Roger told him, starting to make the coffee.

He was again ignored by the stranger, who flicked through some book he'd found, "Hmm. Sad ending."

"They said on the news they'd found a body."

"Roger Taylor." The doctor read out from the book corner, wondering to himself when the man would give up.

He glanced at the mirror nearby. It was the first time he'd had a chance to look at his reflection, "Ah, could've been worse. Look at the teeth." 

"...All the same, he was nice. Nice bloke, Wilson…"

The doctor started messing around. Each time he regenerated it was different. New set of skills. "Luck be a lady." He mumbled under his breath, half singing, trying to do one of those fancy card shuffle tricks (subsequently dropping them on the floor).

"Anyway, if we are going to go to the police, I want to know what I'm saying." Roger continued, not having paid him any attention. "I want you to explain everything."

The doctor was also not paying attention; it seemed easier to ignore the - to put it frankly - prattling. However a noise by the cat flap caught his ear. "What's that, then? You got a cat?"

"No." Roger put the coffee cups down, looking around for where the mystery man had ended up. “We did have, but now they're just strays. They come in off the estate.”

The blond sighed when he saw the Doctor with the plastic hand from before at his neck, “I told Chris to chuck that out. You're all the same. Give a man a plastic hand. Anyway, I don't even know your name. Doctor, what was it?”

The Doctor kept struggling,the arm actually strangling him - not that Roger noticed until he threw it off and it landed on his face.

Roger screamed, the doctor was pulling at the mannequin arm too. In all the mayhem they ended up on the sofa, Roger on top of him.

The blond gasped when the hand let go of him, watching in confusion as the Doctor zapped it with the same device as before. In all the panic, he almost wanted to laugh - his mum had the hair dryer on and hadn't heard anything.

"It's all right, I've stopped it. There you go, you see?" He threw the arm over to him, "Armless." 

"Do you think?" Roger walked him with it hard, causing him to yelp.

The dark haired man rolled his eyes, giving his arm a rub where Roger had hit him. He grabbed the arm and left. As fun as this little tangent had been; he had a job to do.

***

"Hold on a minute. You can't just go swanning off." Roger chased after him.

"Yes I can. Here I am. This is me, swanning off. See you." He used the arm to wave before speeding up his step.

"But that arm was moving. It tried to kill me."

"Ten out of ten for observation."

"You can't just walk away. That's not fair. You've got to tell me what's going on.

"No, I don't." The doctor tried to close the door on him, but Roger got through - catching up to his side.

"All right, then. I'll go to the police. I'll tell everyone. You said, if I did that, I'd get people killed. So, your choice. Tell me, or I'll start talking."

"Is that supposed to sound tough?" The doctor smirked. He had to give Roger credit, he really was trying. But he also couldn't get attached. Not after everything.

"Sort of." 

"Doesn't work."

"Who are you?" The blond asked finally.

"Told you. The Doctor."

"Yeah, but Doctor what?"

"Just the Doctor."

"The Doctor." Roger repeated dumbly.

"Hello." He put on an exaggerated smile, his teeth showing awkwardly.

"Is that supposed to sound impressive?"

"Sort of." He admitted. Maybe he wasn't a complete dazzler this time round. Maybe next time.

"Come on, then. You can tell me. I've seen enough. Are you the police?" Roger asked.

"No, I was just passing through. I'm a long way from home."

Further than he'd ever been before, but he couldn't let what he'd done interfere now. He'd done enough damage.

"But what have I done wrong? How comes those plastic things keep coming after me?" Roger looked up at him, they were probably the same height, but Roger was only in converse.

"Oh, suddenly the entire world revolves around you." The doctor scoffed, "You were just an accident. You got in the way, that's all."

"It tried to kill me."

"It was after me, not you. Last night, in the shop, I was there, you blundered in, almost ruined the whole thing. This morning, I was tracking it down, it was tracking me down. The only reason it fixed on you is 'cos you've met me."

"So what you're saying is, the entire world revolves around you." Roger gave him a deadpan look.

"Sort of, yeah." He nodded, somehow commanding confidence despite everything.

"You're full of it."

"Sort of, yeah."

"But, all this plastic stuff. Who else knows about it?" Roger looked around. He sort of felt like he should be warning people, telling the kids to get off the street, getting people to safety. But looking at them it was an entirely different world to what the man next to him brought.

"No one."

"What, you're on your own?"

"Well, who else is there?" The doctor looked at him, stopping to make eye contact, "I mean, you lot, all you do is eat chips, go to bed, and watch telly, while all the time, underneath you, there's a war going on."

"Okay." Roger nodded. He wasn't sure he believed any of it - could be a mad man or a drunk or something. But then again? 

"Start from the beginning. I mean, if we're going to go with the living plastic, and I don't even believe that, but if we do, how did you kill it?"

"The thing controlling it projects life into the arm. I cut off the signal, dead."

"So that's radio control?" Roger guessed, trying to make sense of it all.

"Thought control." The doctor replied, "Are you all right?"

"Yeah. So, who's controlling it, then?"

"Long story."

"But what's it all for? I mean, shop window dummies, what's that about? Is someone trying to take over Britain's shops?"

"No."

"No? What then?" Roger asked, trying not to sound too exasperated with him - he sort of sensed that no matter how gentle the doctor looked, he could probably snap him in half at the blink of an eye.

"It's not a price war. They want to overthrow the human race and destroy you. Do you believe me?"

"No."

"But you're still listening."

Perhaps he was, Roger realised. Perhaps he was starting to think that this man was right. But what then? Humanity would be over? Or would this skinny bloke somehow save the day like a cringy hero?

"Really, though, Doctor. Tell me, who are you?"

"Do you know like we were saying about the Earth revolving? It's like when you were a kid. The first time they tell you the world's turning and you just can't quite believe it because everything looks like it's standing still." The Doctor told him, taking his hand. The psychic link tapped into Roger's mind, making him understand for just a fraction of a second.

He didn't want to be alone.

"I can feel it. The turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, and the entire planet is hurtling round the sun at sixty seven thousand miles an hour, and I can feel it." The doctor continued, "We're falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go... That's who I am. Now, forget me, Roger Taylor. Go home."

He let go of his hand, walking off towards the blue box on the street corner, mannequin arm in hand. Roger sighed, turning away, scuffing the ground as he made his way home.

He felt rather than heard the noise, the metallic wheezing that chilled his soul, the flurry of sound and movement and stars.

Turning around there was nothing there, no doctor, no mannequins, no blue box. Just an ordinary day.

***

"Hey, hey, here's my boyfriend. Kit off!" Crystal pulled him in for a kiss against the front door of his matchbox flat.

"Shut up." Roger laughed, poking him in the chest.

"Coffee?" Crystal pulled away slightly, still smiling in return.

"Yeah, only if you wash the mug. And I don't mean rinse, I mean wash." Roger chastised, "Also can I use your computer? Mines still fucked."

"Yeah. Any excuse to get in the bedroom." He nodded, letting his boyfriend go through before suddenly yelling through, "Don't read my history!"

Roger shook his head, tapping into Chris's botched up laptop. He did a quick Google for 'Doctor living plastic', 'Doctor', 'Thought control plastic'.

Nothing came up - well everything came up, half the internet seemed to be behind these words. But nothing useful.

Not until he typed in 'Doctor blue box'.

Then he got something. There was only four hundred results, and on the third he found a link to an address, someone living just a few tube rides away. Looking through the sight he found a grainy photo of the Doctor with the caption 'Do you know this man?'

That's where he had to go.

***

"You're not coming in. He's safe. He's got a wife and kids." Roger instructed, looking at Chris. They had driven there in his beat up car - it wasn't originally so rough looking but the mechanic decided not to leave the turbo alone-

"Yeah, who told you that?" Crystal interrupted, "He did. That's exactly what an internet lunatic murderer would say."

Roger shook him off, giving him a kiss on the cheek before getting out. Hopefully Chris would behave and stay put.

He went up to the house, knocking on the door, waiting patiently until a school boy opened it. Roger turned to the car, giving Chris an 'I told you so' look.

"Hello, I've come to see Mr Holder? We've been emailing."

"Dad! It's one of your nutters!" The boy called back, shrugging off put of the way only to be replaced by a tall man with odd clothes. The colours were weirdly bright, maybe he was a weirdo like Crystal had said?

"Oh, sorry. Hello. You must be Roger. I'm Noddy, obviously." He held his hand out to shake.

"I'd better tell you now. My boyfriend's waiting in the car, just in case you're going to kill me." Roger told him with a smile (sort of also for protection but mostly to break the ice).

"No, good point. No murders." He laughed, giving the car a wave, "Come on in."

"Who is it?" A voice called through from the kitchen.

"Oh, it's something to do with the Doctor. He's been reading the website. Please, come through. I'm in the shed."

"Someone's read your blog? A real person?" He voice scoffed, but didn't move to interfere.

"Silly man, it's my husband Jim. Doesn't believe me," Noddy led Roger out through the back of the house to the garden, "A lot of this stuff's quite sensitive. I couldn't just send it to you. People might intercept it, if you know what I mean. If you dig deep enough and keep a lively mind."

He rummaged through some boxes, it looked pretty compulsive. Like a hoarder.

"This Doctor keeps cropping up all over the place. Political diaries, conspiracy theories, even ghost stories. No first name, no last name, just the Doctor. Always The Doctor. And the title seems to have been passed down from father to son. It appears to be an inheritance." He handed Roger the photo, it looked old: but it was definitely the man he'd met yesterday. "That's your Doctor there, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"I tracked it down to the Washington public archive just last year. The online photo's enhanced, but if we look at the original…" he handed over a second photo, an image of the crowds applauding Kennedy the day he died, the cortege going through Dallas. The Doctor's face was in the crowd.

"November the 22nd, 1963. The assassination of President Kennedy. You see?"

"It must be his father." Roger reasoned, the photo was blurry, he'd seen the documentaries like it - too conveniently smudged or blurry. But it did look like him.

"Going further back. April 1912. This is a photo of the Daniels family of Southampton, and friend. This was taken the day before they were due to sail off for the New World on the Titanic, and for some unknown reason, they cancelled the trip and survived. And here we are. 1883. Another Doctor." He put more photos and sketches on the table, "And look, the same lineage. It's identical. This one washed up on the coast of Sumatra on the very day Krakatoa exploded. The Doctor is a legend woven throughout history. When disaster comes, he's there. He brings the storm in his wake and he has one constant companion."

"Who's that?"

"Death." Noddy said, looking paler now, "If the Doctor's back, if you've seen him, Roger, then one thing's for certain. We're all in danger."

Roger blinked at him, expecting a punchline or for his face to break into a laugh.

It didn't.

"If he's singled you out, if the Doctor's making house calls, then God help you."

"But who is he? Who do you think he is?" Roger asked, looking through the photos again. A long family line of men doing what exactly? And why?

"I think he's the same man. I think he's immortal. I think he's an alien from another world."


	2. Roger part two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, love to hear from everyone, comments and kudos fuel me
> 
> There's snippets of this on my Tumblr under vortex AU tag and I take requests
> 
> If anyone has questions either head there or comment below, anyhoo, hope you all enjoy!!

Roger sighed, getting into the car quickly. Crystal had been right.

"All right, he's a nutter. Off his head. Complete online conspiracy freak." Roger admitted, doing up his seatbelt, "You win! What are we going to do tonight? I fancy a pizza"

Crystal stayed quiet, but started the car.

"Do you think I should try the hospital? Suki said they had jobs going in the canteen. Is that it then, dishing out chips. I could do A Levels. I don't know. It's all Jimmy Stone's fault. I only left school because of him. Look where he ended up. What do you think?"

"So, where did you meet this Doctor?" Crystal glanced at him, not looking altogether there.

"I'm sorry, wasn't I talking about me for a second?"

"Because I reckon it started back at the shop, am I right? Was he something to do with that?" 

"No." Roger sat back, watching Crystal closely. Something was off.

"Come on." Crystal pried, "You can tell me."

"Sort of."

"What was he doing there?" Crystal parked the car roughly on the road side by the restaurant.

"I'm not going on about it, Chris." Roger got out, heading inside. If this was Crystal in a mood cause he had to drive out for nothing he could cut it out. "Really, I'm not, because, I know it sounds daft, but I don't think it's safe. I think he's dangerous."

"But you can trust me, sweetheart." He held the door open awkwardly, "Babe b-babe, babe. You can tell me any-anything."

Roger looked at him, that wasn't a normal stutter, it sounded robotic. Like someone trying to imitate a stutter that hadn't heard language before.

"Tell me about the Doctor and what he's planning, and I can help you, Rog." Crystal was right on his heels as they went towards a table, not leaving any space between them, "Because that's all I really want to do, sweetheart, babe, babe, sugar, sweetheart."

"What're you doing that for?" Roger finally snapped, glaring at him.

"Your champagne." Someone interrupted him, sticking a bottle of cheap Moët in his face.

"We didn't order any champagne." Crystal brushed the waiter off rudely, staring straight at Roger instead. "Where's the Doctor?"

"Sir, your champagne."

"It's not ours." Roger shook his head, but maintained eye contact with his boyfriend, "Chris, what is it? What's wrong?"

"I need to find out how much you know, so where is he?"

"Doesn't anybody want this champagne?"

Finally the mechanic broke the state, angrily turning to look at the waiter, "Look, we didn't order-"

"Don't mind me." It was the doctor, standing cool as anything shaking the champagne bottle, "I'm just toasting the happy couple. On the house!"

Roger seemed to see it in slow motion, wide eyed as the Doctor untwisted the wire cage around the cork, sending it flying into Crystal's forehead. The blond's stomach twisted as he saw the cork be absorbed by the skin like it was quicksand.

"Anyway." Crystal smiled coldly, standing up. The front of his hand flipped weirdly, Roger was still shell shocked - but the next thing he knew there was gun shots, the table flipping and chaos around them.

The doctor pushed him out of the way, tackling Crystal.

Roger could hear the panic in the people around them, he needed to get them away. His eyes started searching the room for something, finally honing in on a fire alarm.

"Everyone out! Out now! Get out! Get out! Get out!"

Roger tried his best at shepherding he crowd out, but then there was a hand on the small of his back, pushing him out as well.

He turned quickly to see the doctor holding something he couldn't make out, still hearing the destruction behind. The ran forward out of the back door, away from the people. The doctor shut the large metal slab door behind them, looking sort of smug. As if he'd enjoyed it.

Roger bolted forward, the fence was locked with one of the big industrial padlocks. They couldn't get out.

And whatever Crystal was, was trying to get to them, denting the metal door and screeching.

"Open the gate! Use that tube thing. Come on!" Roger barked at the doctor.

"It's a sonic screwdriver."

"Use it!"

"Nah." The dark haired man shrugged, "Tell you what, let's go in here."

He wondered into the blue box, vaguely in the back of Roger's head that meant something. But there really wasn't time for his nonsense.

"You can't hide inside a wooden box. It's going to get us! Doctor!"

He tried the padlock again: it wouldn't budge. The metal door keeping the creature in Crystal's body was almost down. So he just went with it.

For whatever unimaginable reason, he ran into the blue box. And his heart nearly stopped.

It was the size of a large hall, corridors and stairs leading off into the great unknown. In the centre was a control panel, glowing in the same golden ærglo as the rest of it.

He bolted outside again, running around it. It was small, like a red phone box in height too. There was no way even a fraction of what he'd just seen would fit insi-

Crystal broke through the door now, it was only then Roger realised his - It's- head wasn't attached.

Without thinking Roger ran back into the back, letting the wooden doors shut behind him.

"It's going to follow us!" Roger looked at the fragile barrier between them and it.

"The assembled hordes of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door, and believe me, they've tried. Now, shut up a minute." The doctor dismissed, slipping his jacket on the bungee seats and fixing the controls up.

"You see, the arm was too simple, but the head's perfect. I can use it to trace the signal back to the original source." He put Crystal's head - Roger by now gathered it wasn't Crystal, buy it was a difficult sight to see - on the navigator, clicking a few buttons before turning to the visitor, "Right. Where do you want to start?"

"Er, the inside's bigger than the outside?"

"Yes."

"It's alien."

"Yeah."

"Are you alien?"

"Yes. Is that all right?"

"Yeah." Roger nodded numbly, looking around realising Noddy had been right.

"It's called the Tardis, this thing." The doctor told him, "T A R D I S. That's Time And Relative Dimension In Space.

Roger had stopped listening, he didn't know what to believe and he wanted to go home. He should call Crystal to pick him u- Crystal. Crystal was gone.

"That's okay." The doctor cooed, seeing the blond look more upset than amazed, "Culture shock. Happens to the best of us."

"Did they kill him? Chris? Did they kill Chris? Is he dead?"

"Oh. I didn't think of that."

"He's my boyfriend. You pulled off his head. They copied him and you didn't even think? And now you're just going to let him melt?" Roger snapped.

"Melt?" The doctor spun around, seeing the head caved in, " Oh, no, no, no, no, no!"

"What're you doing?" Roger nearly growled at him, watching the alien dart around the controls, making the whole thing whirl with noise.

"Following the signal. It's fading. Wait a minute, I've got it…" he kept his eyes down, flying into a fury of movement, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Almost there. Almost there. Here we go!"

"You can't go out there. It's not safe."

Roger followed him out, shocked to see they were in the centre of Westminster, it was dark outside suddenly too - which was odd since they'd just come away from a monstrous lunch, but Roger didn't bother to think on it too much.

"I lost the signal, I got so close." The doctor told him, looking around for something.

"We've moved. Does it fly?"

"Disappears there and reappears here. You wouldn't understand."

"If we're somewhere else, what about that headless thing? It's still on the loose."

"It melted with the head. Are you going to witter on all night?"

"I'll have to tell his mother." Roger commented dryly, trying not to process it right now. The dark haired man gave him a lost look.

"Chris. I'll have to tell his mother he's dead, and you just went and forgot him, again! You were right, you are alien."

"Look, if I did forget some kid called Chris-"

"Yeah, he's not a kid-"

"It's because I'm trying to save the life of every stupid ape blundering on top of this planet, all right?"

"All right." Roger met his tone angrily.

"Yes, it is!" The doctor snapped back at him loudly, hands on his hips. There was a quiet pause after that, both seem to wind their necks in.

"If you are an alien, how comes you sound like you're from North London?"

"Lots of planets have a North London." The doctor replied a lot more gently.

"What's a police public call box?" Roger asked, glancing at the blue box next to them.

"It's a telephone box from the 1950s. It's a disguise."

"Doctor what? What's your actual name?"

"Just the doctor. Nothing else - I go by freddie a lot though. Less questions asked that way."

"Okay. And this, this living plastic. What's it got against us?"

"Nothing. It loves you. You've got such a good planet. Lots of smoke and oil, plenty of toxins and dioxins in the air, perfect." Freddie told him, "Just what the Nestene Consciousness needs. It's food stock was destroyed in the war, all its protein plants rotted, so Earth, dinner!"

"Any way of stopping it?"

"Anti-plastic."

"Anti-plastic?" Roger watched him wave a tube of blue liquid that seemed to have come from a hidden inner pocket.

"Anti-plastic." The doctor nodded, "But first I've got to find it. How can you hide something that big in a city this small?"

"Hold on. Hide what?"

"The transmitter. The Consciousness is controlling every single piece of plastic, so it needs a transmitter to boost the signal."

"What's it look like?" Roger asked, there was a lot going on, but for the first time he felt like they were on the same page. Him and the alien.

"Like a transmitter. Round and massive, slap bang in the middle of London." Freddie looked around, staring passed the London eye, "A huge circular metal structure like a dish, like a wheel. Radial. Close to where we're standing. Must be completely invisible. What? What?"

Roger couldn't help but laugh, he was staring straight at the damn thing too. Maybe he wasn't so good after all.

"What? What is it? What?" The doctor turned around again, looking back to Roger before spinning again. Then he saw it. "Oh. Fabulous!"

***

"Think of it, plastic all over the world, every artificial thing waiting to come alive." Freddie told him as they ran across the bridge towards it. "The shop window dummies, the phones, the wires, the cables."

"The breast implants." Roger pointed out.

"Still, we've found the transmitter. The Consciousness must be somewhere underneath." 

They came to a stop near the closed ticket stand, looking about for a way to get in. Roger, despite all common sense, was going along with it all, trying not to worry about Crystal or what would happen if the doctor was right and they didn't stop the plastic.

"What about down here?" He pointed to a manhole across from the rails, it was slightly open too.

"Looks good to me." Freddie nodded, giving him a rare toothy grin.

The scurried down it, finding the inside led to a large hall that had platforms around the outside like tiers of a theatre.

Freddie pulled him behind some crates, pointing down the a large moving golden splodge. "The Nestene Consciousness. That's it, inside the vat. A living plastic creature."

"Well, then. Tip in your anti-plastic and let's go."

"I'm not here to kill it." Freddie gave him an unreadable look, "I've got to give it a chance."

He shot up before Roger could ask anything else, darting down the gangway towards it.

“I seek audience with the Nestene Consciousness under peaceful contract according to convention 15 of the Shadow Proclamation.” Freddie announced, voice booming over the depths of the hall. The creature in the vat seemed to react, moving about and making a rumbling noise. “Thank you. If I might have permission to approach?”  
Roger watched as Freddie walked forward some more, still confidently approaching the monster as if it was something normal. Perhaps it was, Roger thought, perhaps this was what he just did, this human looking alien. He looked around him, seeing various dummies staying around, some other things too, metal chains and ropes hooked to the walls, crates all over the place, and something shivering on the ground a level across from him… It was a person.

It was Crystal - still alive but somehow trapped down here.

“Oh, God, Chris, it's me! It's okay. It's all right.” Roger snuck over, staying low as he pulled Chris into his chest, not minding if the creature saw; Chris was more important.

“That thing down there, the liquid. Rose, it can talk.” He was grabbing at his sleeve, shaking like a leaf.

“You're alright. Doctor, they kept him alive.” He called over, checking again to see that his boyfriend wasn’t plastic. He wasn’t. One hundred percent human.

“Yeah, that was always a possibility. Keep him alive to maintain the copy.” Freddie dismissed.

“You knew that and you never said?” Roger glared at him, Freddie might have looked perfectly human, but clearly he was alien in the mind.

"Can we keep the domestics outside, thank you?" Freddie met his glare, tiring back to the nestene in the vat. "Am I addressing the Consciousness? Thank you. If I might observe, you infiltrated this civilisation by means of warp shunt technology. So, may I suggest, with the greatest respect, that you shunt off?"

Roger and Chris watched as the molten plastic seemed to grow a face, screaming (if that were possible) as a reply. It didn't seem to faze the Doctor.

"Oh, don't give me that. It's an invasion, plain and simple. Don't talk about constitutional rights." He watched it interrupt him again, losing his patience a little now, "I am talking! This planet is just starting. These stupid little people have only just learnt how to walk, but they're capable of so much more. I'm asking you on their behalf... Please, just go."

But the nestene consciousness had had enough, Freddie didn't see the mannequins come up behind him until he heard Roger calling him. His heart stopped when they found the tube of anti plastic, now they were fucked.

"That was just insurance. I wasn't going to use it. I was not attacking you. I'm here to help. I'm not your enemy. I swear, I'm not." He paused for the reply, Roger realised he probably understood the grumblings.

Roger held Crystal closer to his chest, still shirking away behind the boxes. He watched the doctor's expression turn to one of confusion.

"What do you mean?" Freddie asked, being turned by the dummies to face a sliding door. It slowly opened to show the TARDIS, glowing blue even in the dim light. "No. Oh, no. Honestly, no. Yes, that's my ship... That's not true. I should know, I was there. I fought in the war. It wasn't my fault… I couldn't save them... I couldn't save your world! I couldn't save any of them… the planets were already disappearing…" freddie tried fruitlessly to escape, but the plastic only got angrier.

"What's it doing?" Roger called, shifting away from his hiding spot.

"It's the Tardis! The Nestene's identified its superior technology. It's terrified. It's going to the final phase. It's starting the invasion! Get out, Rose! Just leg it now!" Freddie roared, if he could just save these two it might be enough. Maybe.

Roger nodded, not even thinking as he pulled Chris with him out the same way they came, not stopping until they landed outside. Crystal collapsed near a wall, catching his breath as the London eye above them seemed to buzz.

Roger grabbed his phone, his mum was probably out now, she needed to be safe. He had to get her safe. "Mum?"

"Oh, there you are. I was just going to phone. You can get compensation. I said so." She was just chatting down the phone, it almost made Roger laugh. End of the world and Winifred was just chatting. "I've got this document thing off the police. Don't thank me-"

"Where are you, mum?"

"I'm in town." She replied, her voice momentarily drowned out by the music of a store as she passed by, "Do you need anything while I'm here? And remember to pick up your T tomorrow, the pharmacies are chocka right now… actually I might go to that new Next in the centr-"

"No, go home! Just go home right now!" Roger almost yelled down the phone, his voice pitching loudly in the pale cold evening.

"Darling, you're breaking up. Listen, I'm just going to do a bit of late night shopping. I'll see you later. Ta-ra!"

"Mum! Mum!" He screamed, but the line was dead, "Fuck… Fuck!"

Above them the buzzing had turned to pulsing, Roger swore he could almost see the rings of sound coming away from it into the nights sky.

"It's the activation signal. It's transmitting!" Crystal told him, now standing by his side with the same terrified expression as before.

"It's the end of the world."

"Not yet," Roger shook his head, "Not yet."

***

The doctor's heart sank further when he saw them coming back in. Of course they did, trying to be heroes amongst monsters. It made him furious that he inspired this in them. It was something he loved about the human race, the always seemed to try even when it was stupid to. But he hated it too.

"Get out, Rog! Just get out! Run!" He ordered, barking in anger, but the entrance was immediately barred by the mannequins. "Get to the TARDIS!"

"I haven't got the key!" Roger called back, panicking when Freddie was nearly thrown into the vat. He looked around desperately for something, spotting an axe in the corner.

"Roger run!" Freddie screamed now, not seeing what the human had, "You've got no chance."

"I've got no A Levels, no job, no future." Roger told him, slamming the ace down on the ropes that held the large chains, "But I tell you what I have got. Jericho Street Junior School under 7s gymnastic team. I've got the bronze!"

The rope snapped, freeing the chain. He grabbed it with both hands, taking a run and jump off of the platform straight into the autons that were holding the doctor.

The anti plastic must've fallen in with them, he didn't know for sure, but the creature in the vat started screaming in pain as it began turning blue. He didn't notice much else until two arms caught him, steadying him onto the ground.

Freddie.

"Now we're in trouble." He said, half grinning as he grabbed Roger's hand again, pulling him into the TARDIS once more.

***

Outside Crystal watched at the transmission stopped, the screaming from the nearby streets seemed to pipe down. He sat up from behind the pallets, flinching when he heard the TARDIS rematerialise.

"A fat lot of good you were." Roger grinned, feeling the adrenaline still pumping through his veins as he stepped out of the blue box.

"Nestene Consciousness? Easy." Freddie scoffed, chest out proudly as if he hadn't just been saved from the end of the world.

"You were useless in there. You'd be dead if it wasn't for me." Roger corrected, helping Chris up from where he'd ended up.

"Yes, I would. Thank you." He gave the blond an earnest look, "Right then, I'll be off, unless, er, I don't know… you could come with me. This box isn't just a London hopper, you know. It goes anywhere in the universe free of charge."

"Don't. He's an alien." Chris held onto Roger's waist, pulling him away, "He's a thing."

"He's not invited. What do you think? You could stay here, fill your life with work and food and sleep, or you could go anywhere." The doctor offered, smiling as the leaned against the TARDIS.

“Is it always this dangerous?” Roger asked, knowing he shouldn’t be feeling as torn about this decision as he was. Out there was dangerous and terrifying, home was safe.

“Yeah.”

“Yeah, I can't. I've er, I've got to go and find my mum and someone's got to look after this stupid lump, so…” Roger held Chris’ hand, giving his fingers a little squeeze. Home it was.

“Okay. See you around.” Freddie gave him another of the indecipherable looks, slipping back inside his blue box, the engines making their wheezing noise like always. The same noise every star in the universe had come to know.

Roger watched the tardis disappear, waiting until there was nothing left to pull at Crystal’s arm, “Come on, let's go. Come on. Come on.” They’d only made it about thirty yards, still silently just holding hands when the same world weary noise ripped through the quiet. Roger turned to see the box in the same place as before, Freddie leaning against the door frame with a cat-like grin.

“By the way, did I mention it also travels in time?”

“Thanks.” Roger was grinning too now, kissing his boyfriend on the cheek.

“Thanks for what?” Crystal frowned.

“Exactly.” He nodded, giving Chris one last smile before running forward, straight into the tardis after Freddie. Straight into a completely different life.

Straight into all of time and space.


	3. The Beast Below - One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roger and Freddie find themselves on starship UK

"Right then, Roger Taylor, you tell me. Where do you want to go? Backwards or forwards in time. It's your choice. What's it going to be?" Freddie asked, a cheeky grin on his face.

"Forwards."

"How far?"

"One hundred years."

Freddie hit the console, letting the TARDIS fly. "There you go. Step outside those doors, it's the twenty second century."

"You're kidding." Roger looked at him wide eyed.

"That's a bit boring, though. Do you want to go further?" Freddie couldn't help show off, it had been years since he'd been this happy.

"Fine by me."

"Ten thousand years in the future. Step outside, it's the year 12005, the new Roman Empire." Perhaps he enjoyed showing off, having people be amazed by him.

"You think you're so impressive."

"I am so impressive."

"You wish." Roger scoffed.

"Right then, you asked for it. I know exactly where to go. Hold on!" He jabbed at the controls, sending the TARDIS into a flurry of noise that could send whole galactic empires into war.

"Where are we? What's out there?" Roger asked.

***

"You lot, you spend all your time thinking about dying, like you're going to get killed by eggs or beef or global warming or asteroids. But you never take time to imagine the impossible, that maybe you survive." Freddie pulls the scanner around to look at it, “Twenty ninth century. Solar flares roast the earth, and the entire human race packs its bags and moves out till the weather improves. Whole nations. This is the United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland. All of it, bolted together and floating in the sky. Starship UK. It's Britain, but metal. That's not just a ship, that's an idea. That's a whole country, living and laughing and shopping. Searching the stars for a new home.”  
“Can we go out and see?”

“Course we can. But first, there's a thing.”

“A thing?”

“An important thing. In fact, Thing One. We are observers only. That's the one rule I've always stuck to in all my travels. I never get involved in the affairs of other peoples or planets.” Freddie puts the scanner on stopping suddenly on an image from inside the main building of ‘London’, “Ooo, that's interesting.”

“So we're like a wildlife documentary, yeah? Because if they see a wounded little cub or something, they can't just save it, they've got to keep filming and let it die.” Roger looks at the scanner, seeing a little girl crying on it, was that what Freddie saw? ”It's got to be hard. I don't think I could do that. Don't you find that hard, being all, like, detached and cold?”

Roger turned, seeing Freddie already out of the door and heading towards the child. The blond followed, setting foot on his first alien ground, looking around and recognising it as London fish market, same nasty smell, same busy loud atmosphere. 

Same everything. 

Except for the smiling mannequins in the glass cases, the sort that are mechanical future tellers at fair grounds, but in the middle of 'London'? Creepy painted faces looked down at Roger as if they were watching him.

"Welcome to London Market. You are being monitored." The tannoy above his head made him look up, seeing a large glass roof instead of the open sky, thousands of stars above his head that he'd never have seen before. He looked up, trying to recognise any of the two constellations he knew, but nothing. "I'm in the future. Like hundreds of years in the future. I've been dead for centuries."

"Oh, lovely. You're a cheery one. Never mind dead, look at this place. Isn't it wrong?" Freddie appeared beside him.

"What's wrong?"

"Come on, use your eyes. Notice everything. What's wrong with this picture?"

"Is it the bicycles? Bit unusual on a spaceship, bicycles."

"Now, come on, look around you. Actually look."

"London Market is a crime-free zone." The tannoy above them called out again, audible above the rest of the hubbub.

"Life on a giant starship. Back to basics. Bicycles, washing lines, wind-up street lamps." Freddie shook his head, "But look closer. Secrets and shadows, lives led in fear. Society bent out of shape, on the brink of collapse. A police state." 

He lurches out to one of the tables, a sort of restaurant looking place with a few people quietly eating dinner. "Excuse me." Freddie snatched a glass from an old woman, putting it flat on the floor and eyeing the stillness of the water-

"What are you doing?"

"Sorry. Checking all the water in this area. There's an escaped fish. Where was I?"

"Why did you just do that with the water?" Roger looked at him as they walked away quickly.

"Don't know. I think a lot. It's hard to keep track. Now, police state. Do you see it yet?"

"Where?"

"There." He points to the child from the monitor, a little girl crying alone on the steps of a train station (Presumably it was a train station, Roger thought, although trains in space were definitely something to be surprised at).

"One little girl crying. So?"

"Crying silently. I mean, children cry because they want attention, because they're hurt or afraid. But when they cry silently, it's because they just can't stop. Any parent knows that."

"Are you a parent?" Roger looks at him.

Freddie paused for a moment, almost as if he was going to answer, but then ignored him, "Hundreds of parents walking past who spot her and not one of them's asking her what's wrong, which means they already know, and it's something they don't talk about. Secrets. They're not helping her, so it's something they're afraid of. Shadows, whatever they're afraid of, it's nowhere to be seen, which means it's everywhere. Police state."

"Where is she going?" Roger watched the girl go into the station as the train arrived, disappearing from view.

"Deck two oh seven. Apple Sesame block, dwelling 54A. You're looking for Mandy Tanner. Oh, er, this fell out of her pocket when I accidentally bumped into her. Took me four goes. Ask her about those things. The smiling fellows in the booths. They're everywhere."

“But they're just things.”

“They're clean. Everything else here is all battered and filthy. Look at this place. But no one's laid a finger on those booths. Not a footprint within two feet of them. Look. Ask Mandy, why are people scared of the things in the booths?”

“No, hang on. What do I do? I don't know what I'm doing here, it’s an alien planet.”

“Roger, really, it’s starship UK, London, same as you know. Just in space.” Freddie told him, “Come on, you remember being scared as a child, something you that was there but you couldn’t control?”

“Yeah, yeah there was a crack in my wall as a child, always thought I could hear voices through it.”

“And our Mandy is scared of these smilers,” Fred waited for him to nod, “Gotcha, meet me back here in half an hour, Taylor.”

“What are you going to do?”

“What I always do. Stay out of trouble. Badly.”

“So is this how it works, Fred? You never interfere in the affairs of other peoples or planets, unless there's children crying?”

“Yes.”

***

Roger got on the train just before it left, getting of in Dean street just after Mandy, only catching up to her once they got to the end of the road, a large road works tent stopping the girl in her tracks, spinning on her heel to glare at the blond.

“You're following me. Saw you watching me at the marketplace.”

“You dropped this.” Roger offers over the wallet Freddie stole, hoping she wouldn’t think he was a molester or anything.

“Yeah, when your friend kept bumping int-” there was a growl from the tent, an actual growl, the ground beneath them vibrating from it.

“What's that?!”

“There's a hole. We have to go back.”

“A what? A hole?” Roger frowned, the large ‘Magpie Electricals’ tent was pitched up with large yellow warning lights and a stop sign. Carefully he opened it up, stepping over the knackered barrier.

“Are you stupid? There's a hole in the road. We can't go that way. There's a travel pipe down by the airlocks, if you've got stamps. What are you doing?”

“Oh, don't mind me. Never could resist a keep out sign. What's through there? What's so scary about a hole? Something under the road?”

“Nobody knows. We're not supposed to talk about it.”

“About what?”

“Below.”

“And because you're not supposed to, you don't? Watch and learn.” He starts pulling at the wooden planks that are covering the hole in the ground, everything is so derelict and been used over and over again that it doesn’t take so much effort to tug them free.

“You sound Cornish.”

“I am. What's wrong with that? Cornwall's got to be here somewhere.”

“No. They wanted their own ship.”

“Hmm. Good for them. Nothing changes.”

“So, how did you get here?” Mandy asked. Neither of them noticed the smiler behind them turn its head 180 degrees, frowning now in it’s booth.

“Oh, just passing through, you know, with a guy.”

“Your boyfriend?”

“No, no I’ve got a boyfriend, somewhere else…”

“Where?”

“Well, it's kind of weird. A long way away ages ago.” He had sort of left Crystal, completely ditched him to go travelling with an alien he’d only just met, “Hey, hey. Result! You coming?”

“No!” Mandy shook her head, behind them the thing in the booth turned its head again, moving from the frown to a deep cruel scowl, eyes red as it looked to them, “Stop! You mustn't do that!”

“Oh, my God.” there was a red light that flooded them now, coming from the uncovered hole, “That's weird. That's-”

Roger cut himself off with a scream, a tentacle lashing out at him. He scuttled back out of the tent as quickly as he could, looking around to see if Mandy was safe… He couldn’t see her, surrounded by tall men in long black hooded coats.

***

Freddie had found his way into the engine room, tapping away and poking at the walls, spinning the gages to see what would happen, taking readings from the screwdriver, shaking his head as he turned the corner. Someone else has put a glass of water on the floor, the water still and unmoving.

“The impossible truth in a glass of water. Not many people see it.” Freddie turned around quickly to face a woman, dark curls covering the edges of a delicate ivory mask, obscuring her face, velvet rich red cloak draped over her body, “But you do, don't you, Doctor?”

“You know me?”

“Keep your voice down. They're everywhere.” She had a thick cockney accent, he realised, “Tell me what you see in the glass.”

“Who says I see anything?”

“Don't waste time. At the marketplace, you placed a glass of water on the floor, looked at it, then came straight here to the engine room. Why?”

“No engine vibration on deck. Ship this size, engine this big, you'd feel it. The water would move. So, I thought I'd take a look. It doesn't make sense. These power couplings, they're not connected.” He pulled out a socket, “Look, they're dummies, see? And behind this wall, nothing. It's hollow. If I didn't know better, I'd say there was-”

“No engine at all.” She finished, realisation dawning on her face.

“But it's working. This ship is travelling through space. I saw it.”

“The impossible truth, Doctor. We're travelling among the stars in a spaceship that could never fly.”

“How?”

“I don't know. There's darkness at the heart of this nation. It threatens every one of us. Help us, Doctor. You're our only hope.” She hands him a tracking device, eyes meeting his, “Your friend is safe. This will take you to him. Now go, quickly.”

“Who are you? How do I find you again?”

“I am Liz Ten, and I will find you.”

***

“Welcome to voting cubicle three thirty C. Please leave this installation as you would wish to find it. The United Kingdom recognises the right to know of all its citizens. A presentation concerning the history of Starship UK will begin shortly. Your identity is being verified on our electoral roll. Name, Roger Meddows Taylor. Age, thirteen hundred and six.”

“Shut up.” Roger growns, eyes squinting as he struggles to wake up fully, the screen bright in front of him, alone in the room.

“Marital status, unknown.” The image changes to the presentation, a different, human, voice starts talking, “You are here because you want to know the truth about this starship, and I am talking to you because you're entitled to know. When this presentation has finished, you will have a choice. You may either protest. Or forget.”

“What?”

“If you choose to protest, understand this. If just one percent of the population of this ship do likewise, the programme will be discontinued with consequences for you all. If you choose to accept the situation, and we hope that you will, then press the Forget button. All the information I'm about to give you will be erased from your memory. You will continue to enjoy the safety and amenities of Starship UK, unburdened by the knowledge of what has been done to save you. Here then, is the truth about Starship UK, and the price that has been paid for the safety of the British people. May God have mercy on our souls.”

***

Roger woke up as the image on the screen change again his hand leaving the forget button confused, this time it's him on the screen, red eyed and pale, “This isn't a trick. This is for real. You've got to find Fred and get him back to the Tardis. Don't let him investigate. Stop him. Do whatever you have to, just please, please get him off this ship!”

Roger stared at it gapping, not even jumping when the door was suddenly opened, Freddie jogging over to his side.

“Listen to me.” His screen self warned, “This isn't a trick. This is for real.”

“Rog? Darling?”

“You've got to find the Doctor.” The recorded him said, suddenly shutting off the video, leaving the screen black.

“What have you done?” Freddie waved the screwdriver in his face, Mandy coming up to his side, not looking as scared as Roger would’ve guessed a little girl should be, “Yeah, your basic memory wipe job. Must have erased about twenty minutes.”

“But why would I choose to forget?”

“Because everyone does.” Mandy told them, “Everyone chooses the Forget button.”

“Did you?”

“I'm not eligible to vote yet. I'm twelve. Any time after you're sixteen, you're allowed to see the film and make your choice. And then once every five years.”  
“And once every five years, everyone chooses to forget what they've learned. Democracy in action.” Freddie sighed.

“How do you not know about this? Are you Cornish too?”

“Oh, I'm way worse than Cornish. I can't even see the movie. Won't play for me.”

“It played for me.”

“The difference being the computer doesn't accept me as human.”

“Why not? You look human.”

“No, you look Time Lord. We came first.”

“So there are other Time Lords, yeah?” Roger asked, looking at him as a pained expression passed by his eyes momentarily, making him look a lot older than he was.

“No. There were, but there aren't. Just me now. Long story. There was a bad day. Bad stuff happened. And you know what? I'd love to forget it all, every last bit of it, but I don't. Not ever. Because this is what I do, every time, every day, every second. This.” Freddie had a spark in his eye that Roger was starting to recognise as danger, “Mandy, run home to your parents, off you go dear.”

He waited for her to leave, grinning suddenly, “Hold tight. We're bringing down the government.”

He slammed his hand on the protest button, the doors shutting them both inside, the floor starting to open up from the far away wall.

“Say wheee!” Freddie took his hand, still grinning like a lune.

“Argh!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so so sorry for the worst updating schedule of all time, I promise I am actually going to put effort into this one, seriously!
> 
> As far as the story is concerned, stay with, it isn't in chronological order as the episodes happen, but it will make sense and the characters do get full arcs and plots, as well as happy endings! If you have any questions or requests either pop them in the comments here or head over to my tumblr (Honey-Rae-Pluto) and Dm or ask, I'm happy to answer/ write up extra content from any of the stories I've cut out of this (some whole episodes, plus I'm not doing any of the books or audiobooks, or anything from the classic series in this story, but I do know most of them very well and I am happy to write them if anyone wants).
> 
> as always, thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed, I'd love to see some feedback for this (please don't point out that the Beast below isn't the second episode of the 2005 series i know), second part of this should be out soon ish!
> 
> Stay groovy!  
> Love you to Pluto and back xxx


	4. The Beast Below - Two

"In bed above, we're deep asleep, while greater love lies further deep. This dream must end, this world must know, we all depend on the beast below."

"High speed air cannon. Lousy way to travel." Freddie told him trivially as they landed in a foul smelling damp chamber, the ground beneath their feet sinking into the mush.

"Where are we?"

"Six hundred feet down, twenty miles laterally, puts us at the heart of the ship. I'd say Lancashire. What's this then, a cave? Can't be a cave. Looks like a cave."

"It's a rubbish dump, and it's minging!"

"Yes, but only food refuse. Organic, coming through feeder tubes from all over the ship."

"The floor's all squidgy, like a water bed."

"But feeding what, though?"

"It's sort of rubbery, feel it. Wet and slimy-"

They were cut off by a distant screech, a high animalistic growl that filled the chamber.

"Er, it's not a floor, it's a… eh…"

"It's a what?"

"The next word is kind of a scary word. You probably want to take a moment, get yourself in a calm place. Go omm."

"Freddie tell me."

"It's a tongue."

"A tongue?"

"A tongue." Freddie confirmed, "A great big tongue."

“This is a mouth. This whole place is a mouth? We're in a mouth?”

“Yes, yes, yes. But on the plus side, roomy.”

“How do we get out?” Roger glared at him, trying not to breath in the smell of it all.

“How big is this beastie? It's gorgeous. Blimey, if this is just the mouth, I'd love to see the stomach. Though not right now.” Freddie said to himself, looking around the chamber, sonic in hand.

“Fred, how do we get out?”

“Okay, it's being fed through surgically implanted feeder tubes, so the normal entrance is closed for business.” There was more growling from behind them, “Shit, too late. It's started.”

“What has?”

“Swallow reflex.” Freddie told him, doing something with the sonic to try reverse the process, “Hold on I can get the eject button working.”

“How does a mouth have an eject button?”

“Right, then.” He reached over to grab Roger’s hand just as a wave of ‘something’ behind them approached fast, like a tidal wave, “This isn't going to be big on dignity.”

***

“There's nothing broken, there's no sign of concussion and yes, you are covered in sick.”

“Where are we?” Roger looked around.

“Overspill pipe, at a guess.” Freddie pulled him up, both soaked and fairly disgusting looking and stinking. Looking around them properly Roger could see they were in a similar room to before, with a forget button in front of them and a smiler in a booth. "One door, one door switch, one condition. We forget everything we saw. Look familiar?"

Freddie turned to address the smiling mannequins in the booths: "There's a creature living in the heart of this ship. What's it doing there?" The creatures turned their heads to frown, Freddie rolled his eyes at that, "No, that's not going to work on me, so come on. Big old beast below decks, and everyone who protests gets shoved down its throat. That how it works?"

Roger grabbed his arm as the mannequins turned again to scowl at him, painted faces unmoving.

"Oh, stop it." Freddie sounded like a tired teacher as he shook his head at them, "I'm not leaving and I'm not forgetting, and what are you fellows going to do about it? Stick out your tongues, huh?"

The door opens behind them, making Roger jump as a tall woman in a dark red velvet cloak enters, somehow making the scowlers become smilers again.  
"Look who it is. You look a lot better without your mask." Freddie grinned at her, "Rog, this is Liz Ten."

"Lovely hair, Roger. Shame about the sick."

"How did you find us?"

"Stuck my gizmo on you. Been listening in. Nice moves on the hurl escape. So, what's the big fella doing here?"

"You're over sixteen, you've voted." Roger pointed out, "Whatever this is, you've chosen to forget about it."

"No. Never forgot, never voted, not technically a British subject." Liz clarified.

"Then who and what are you, and how do you know me?" Freddie looked at her.

"You're a bit hard to miss, love. Mysterious stranger, M O consistent with higher alien intelligence, hair of an idiot. I've been brought up on the stories. My whole family was." She started to make her way down the corridor, seeming to know her way around.

"Your family?"

"The Doctor. Old drinking buddy of Henry Twelve. Tea and scones with Liz Two. Vicky was a bit on the fence about you, weren't she? Knighted and exiled you on the same day. And so much for the Virgin Queen, you bad, bad boy."

"Liz Ten." Freddie repeated, suddenly understanding, "Elizabeth the Tenth, Queen Elizabeth the Tenth."

"Got it in one, love," she nodded, "Any ideas on what the tentacles are? We get them all over the ship."

"Fred, I saw one of these up top. There was a hole in the road, like it had burst through like a root." Roger told them, eager to still be part of the conversation.

“Exactly like a root. It's all one creature, the same one we were inside, reaching out. It must be growing through the mechanisms of the entire ship.”

“What, like an infestation?” Queen Liz turned to him, “Someone's helping it. Feeding it. Feeding my subjects to it.”

Roger fell back a few steps, ‘Don't let him investigate. Stop him. Do whatever you have to, just please, please get Freddie off this ship.’ That’s the message he’d made himself, that’s what he had thought once he’d found out the truth about this place… Should he do something?

He couldn’t think what, following them into a room full of glasses of water, obviously a royal chamber, feeling like a child in comparison to all these mind games and aliens, how could he possibly convince Freddie to leave? What was so bad he couldn’t bear the thought of remembering?

“A queen going undercover to investigate her own kingdom?” Freddie looked impressed if anything leaning on the wall.

“Secrets are being kept from me. I don't have a choice. Ten years I've been at this. My entire reign. And you've achieved more in one afternoon.”

“How old were you when you came to the throne?”

“Forty. Why?”

“What, you're fifty now? No way.” Roger scoffed, she had to be a little older than him, but not by much, not over twice his age anyway.

“Yeah, they slowed my body clock. Keeps me looking like the stamps.”

“And you always wear this in public?” Freddie held the mask up, “Air-balanced porcelain. Stays on by itself, because it's perfectly sculpted to your face.”

“Yeah? So what?”

“Oh, Liz. So everything-”

“Ma'am,” A man in a hooded balck uniform appeared from thin air behind them, startling all three, “you have expressed interest in the interior workings of Starship UK. You will come with us now.” 

“What are you doing? How dare you come in here?”

The man didn’t answer, instead his head turned to the side, kept turning past any point Roger thought was natural, soon revealing a scowling mannequin face like the ones in the booths.

“Freddie, how can they be Smilers?”

“Half Smiler, half human.” Freddie answered quietly

“Whatever you creatures are, I am still your queen. On whose authority is this done?” Liz spoke over them, a deep tone of command in her voice.

“The highest authority, Ma'am.”

“I am the highest authority.”

“Yes, ma'am. You must go now, Ma'am.”

“Where?”

“The Tower, Ma'am.”

***

“Fred, where are we?” Roger looked at where they were being led, kinda looked like an engine room on an alien spaceship, well it was, he supposed, more of those holes in the ground from the tentacles were scattered around, kids sitting around in the largest hall looking scared to death.

“The lowest point of Starship UK. The dungeon.”

“There's children down here. What's all that about?” Roger looked at them, not understanding why they had them locked up here.

“Protesters and citizens of limited value are fed to the beast. For some reason, it won't eat the children. You're the first adults it's spared.” the smiler man told them, still sounding human, “You're very lucky.”

“Yeah, look at us. Torture chamber of the Tower of London. Lucky, lucky, lucky. Except it's not a torture chamber, is it? Well, except it is. Except it isn't.” Freddie waved his arms about in explanation, running ahead of them a bit to a white glass orb, “Depends on your angle.”

“What's that?” Roger’s eyes finally focused on it, it looked like a massive brain in a container, electrical currents lighting it up every few moments.

“Well, like I say, it depends on the angle. It's the exposed pain centre of big fella's brain, being tortured relentlessly… It’s the gas pedal, the accelerator. Starship UK's go faster button.” Freddie’s face had turned cold, something in his voice changed altogether, a tone Roger had only seen once before.

“I don't understand.” Liz shook her head, looking at it.

“Don't you? Try to. Go on. The spaceship that could never fly. No vibration on deck. This creature, this poor, trapped, terrified creature. It's not infesting you, it's not invading, it's what you have instead of an engine. And this place down here is where you hurt it, where you torture it, day after day, just to keep it moving. Tell you what. Normally, it's above the range of human hearing.” A calm rage, that was it, a terrifying calm rage that Freddie seemed to harness, chilling them all as he used the sonic on the machines, changing their frequencies. “This is the sound none of you wanted to hear.”

Roger could hear himself gasp as the screaming began, it was in pain. Whatever it was was in pain.

“Stop it.” Liz ordered, “Who did this?”

“We act on instructions from the highest authority.” The smiler-man replied gently, seemingly not bothered.

“I am the highest authority. The creature will be released, now.” None of the other smiler men moved, “I said now! Is anyone listening to me?”

“Liz. Your mask.” Freddie sucked his front teeth in for a moment as he thought.

“What about my mask?”

“Look at it. It's old. At least two hundred years old, I'd say.”

“Yeah? It's an antique. So?”

“Yeah, an antique made by craftsmen over two hundred years ago and perfectly sculpted to your face. They slowed your body clock, all right, but you're not fifty. Nearer three hundred. And it's been a long old reign.”

“Nah, it's ten years. I've been on this throne ten years.”

“Ten years. And the same ten years, over and over again, always leading you here.”

The smiler man nodded, switching his face back to human, presenting them with two more buttons on the central panel under another screen, Forget and Abdicate.  
“What have you done?”

“Only what you have ordered. We work for you, Ma'am. The Smilers, all of us.” He said before switching on the screen, Liz looking straight at them through it.  
“If you are watching this. If I am watching this, then I have found my way to the Tower Of London. The creature you are looking at is called a Star Whale. Once, there were millions of them. They lived in the depths of space and, according to legend, guided the early space travellers through the asteroid belts. This one, as far as we are aware, is the last of its kind... And what we have done to it breaks my heart. The Earth was burning. Our sun had turned on us and every other nation had fled to the skies. Our children screamed as the skies grew hotter.” Roger watched on, gripping onto Freddie’s jacket, “And then it came, like a miracle. The last of the Star Whales. We trapped it, we built our ship around it, and we rode on its back to safety. If you wish our voyage to continue, then you must press the Forget button. Be again the heart of this nation, untainted. If not, press the other button. Your reign will end, the Star Whale will be released, and our ship will disintegrate. I hope I keep the strength to make the right decision.”

“I voted for this. Why would I do that?” Roger stuttered, looking from the screen to Freddie.

“Because you knew if we stayed here, I'd be faced with an impossible choice. Humanity or the alien. You took it upon yourself to save me from that. And that was wrong. You don't ever decide what I need to know.”

“I don't even remember doing it.”

“You did it. That's what counts.”

“I'm... I'm sorry.”

“Oh, I don't care. When I'm done here, you're going home.”

“Why? Because I made a mistake? One mistake? I don't even remember doing it. Freddie.”

“Yeah, I know... You're only human.” Freddie didn’t even look at him, going to the control panel again.

“What are you doing?”

“The worst thing I'll ever do. I'm going to pass a massive electrical charge through the Star Whale's brain. Should knock out all its higher functions, leave it a vegetable. The ship will still fly, but the whale won't feel it.”

“That'll be like killing it.” Roger shook his head, tears running freely down his face now.

“Look, three options, Rog. One, I let the Star Whale continue in unendurable agony for hundreds more years. Two, I kill everyone on this ship. Three, I murder a beautiful, innocent creature as painlessly as I can. And then I find a new name, because I won't be the Doctor any more.”

“There must be something we can do, some other way-”

“Nobody talk to me. Nobody human has anything to say to me today!” Freddie shouted at them, his eyes burning with something Roger didn’t ever want to see again, pain. Pain beyond all else.

Roger stood back, Liz going to his side watching Freddie angrily stab at the controls and rewire things, the children clinging together terrified. “The children screamed. It came, like a miracle.” Roger repeated quietly, “ It won't eat the children… The last of it’s kind…”

“Freddie! Stop. Whatever you're doing, stop it now! Sorry, Your Majesty. Going to need a hand.” Roger shot up, pulling Liz forward to the voting buttons and slamming her hand down on the abdicate button.

“Roger, no! No!” Freddie protested, getting there too late to stop it., the whole ship shaking for a moment before being still, “What have you done?”

“Nothing at all. Am I right?” Roger looked at the smiler man.

“We've increased speed.”

“Yeah, well, you've stopped torturing the pilot. Got to help.” Roger nodded, wiping his face.

“It's still here. I don't understand.”

“The Star Whale didn't come like a miracle all those years ago. It volunteered. You didn't have to trap it or torture it. That was all just you. It came because it couldn't stand to watch your children cry.” He glanced at Freddie quickly, “What if you were really old, and really kind and alone? Your whole race dead. No future.   
What couldn't you do then? If you were that old, and that kind, and the very last of your kind, you couldn't just stand there and watch children cry.”

“Rog,” Freddie sighed, leaning into him, “You could have killed everyone on this ship.”

“You could have killed a Star Whale.”

“And you saved it. I know, I know.”

“Amazing though, don't you think? The Star Whale. All that pain and misery and loneliness, and it just made it kind.”

“But you couldn't have known how it would react.”

“You couldn't. But I've seen it before. Very old and very kind, and the very, very last. Sound a bit familiar?”

Roger felt Freddie pull him close, hugging him warmly all anger gone completely.

“Gotcha.”

“Gotcha.”

***

“Shouldn't we say goodbye? Won't they wonder where we went?” Roger followed him back through the market, now smelling worse than the fish as they made their way to the TARDIS.

“For the rest of their lives. Oh, the songs they'll write. Never mind them. Let’s get changed.”

Roger grinned, entering the TARDIS after him, the corner of his eye catching on something as he went, something that looked familiar, like the crack in his bedroom wall. “So that was the end of the Earth, the Sun expanded and that was that?”

“Get changed quickly, wardrobe is down the corridor, second left, past the pool, do a right at the library.” Freddie told him, “Meet me here after.”  
Roger nodded, soon finding some clothes that weren’t covered in whale sick, washing out his hair quickly too. When he made it back to the control panel Freddie had gotten cleaned up too, a flowery black jacket this time, pointing to the doors of the spaceship.

It was London, babies crying and old men doing whatever the fuck they do, kids nealy killing people with their bikes, humanity just carrying on. “You think it'll last forever, people and cars and concrete, but it won't. One day it's all gone. Even the sky. My planet's gone. It's dead. It burned like the Earth. It's just rocks and dust before its time.”

“What happened?”

“There was a war and we lost.”

“A war with who? What about your people?”

“I'm a Time Lord. I'm the last of the Time Lords. They're all gone. I'm the only survivor. I'm left travelling on my own 'cos there's no one else.”

“There's me.”

“You've seen how dangerous it is. Do you want to go home?”

“I don't know. I want... Oh, can you smell chips?”

“Yeah. Yeah.” Freddie smiled, nodding.

“I want chips.”

“Me too.”

“Right then, before you get me back in that box, chips it is, and you can pay.”

“No money.”

“What sort of date are you? Come on then, tightwad, chips are on me. We've only got five billion years till the shops close.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey  
> Thanks for reading, love to see kudos and comments for this!  
> Back soon with a Dalek!


	5. Dalek - One

"So what is it? What's wrong?" Roger shoved the last of the chips into his mouth, stepping out into what looked a lot like a museum, but not one he'd ever been into, strange arms and heads on display.

"Don't know. Some kind of signal drawing the Tardis off course."

"Where are we?"

"Earth. Utah, North America. About half a mile underground."

"And when are we?" Roger looked up, starting to get the hang of it, asking the right questions.

"Two thousand and twenty six."

"God, that's so close. So I should be twenty six." Roger counted quickly in his head, walking into the room a bit more, “Blimey. It's a great big museum.”

“An alien museum. Someone's got a hobby. They must have spent a fortune on this. Chunks of meteorite, moon dust. That's the milometer from the Roswell spaceship.” He stopped in front of a cyberman’s head, cold metal completely dead, “An old friend of mine. Well, enemy. The stuff of nightmares reduced to an exhibit... I'm getting old.”

“Is that where the signals are coming from?”

“No, it's stone dead. The signal's alive. Something's reaching out, calling for help.” He taps on the glass, alarms immediately ringing out seconds before armed guards come crashing into the room, guns pointed at their pair.

“If someone is collecting aliens,” The blond muttered, “that makes you Exhibit A.”

***  
“And this is the last. Paid eight hundred thousand dollars for it.”

They were roughly shoved into an office, the girl who'd been talking turned to look at them, probably about Roger’s age holding onto some sort of rock, the man in the chair she’d been talking to just raised an eyebrow. Clearly the man in charge.

“What does it do, Lucy?”

“Well, you see the tubes on the side? It must be to channel something. I think maybe fuel.”

“I really wouldn't hold it like that.” Freddie interrupted, getting glared at, “Really, though, that's wrong.”

“Is it dangerous?” The younger - Lucy - looked over.

"No, it just looks silly." Freddie reached across to take the item from her, the armed men pointing their rifles at them again, Roger just watched as he started to almost stroke the object, making a delicate note come out . "You just need to be delicate."

“It's a musical instrument.” The man said, a thick american accent as he leaned forward.

“And it's a long way from home.” Freddie smiled a little to himself before the american ripped the device out of his hands, trying to make it play with harsh fingers, “I did say delicate. It reacts to the smallest fingerprint. It needs precision.”

“Who exactly are you?”

“I'm the Doctor.” Freddie smiled, stepping back alongside Roger, “And who are you?”

“Like you don't know. We're hidden away with the most valuable collection of extra-terrestrial artefacts in the world,” He gave them a very cold expression, smiling bitterly at them, “and you just stumbled in by mistake.”

“Pretty much sums me up, yeah.”

“The question is, how did you get in? Fifty three floors down, with your little cat burglar accomplice.” He eyed Roger up and down, “You're quite a collector yourself, he's rather pretty. “

“He's going to smack you if you keep talking about him.” Roger crossed his arms, nowhere near happy with the man.

“He's English too! Little Lord Fauntleroy.” the collector grinned, turning to look at Lucy, “Canuck - you and the brit, one of each. Got you a boyfriend then.”

“This is Mister Lindsey Buckingham.” Lucy ducked her head down as an apology for her employer.

“And who's he when he's at home?” 

“Mister Buckingham owns the internet.”

“Don't be stupid.” Roger squinted, “No one owns the internet.”

“So you're just about an expert in everything except the things in your museum.” Freddie mused, clicking his tongue, “And anything you don't understand, you lock up.”

“And you claim greater knowledge?”

“I don't need to make claims, I know how good I am.” Freddie smirked, trying to show off a little, Roger realised.

“And yet, I captured you. Right next to the Cage. What were you doing down there?”

“You tell me.”

“The cage contains my one living specimen.”

“And what's that?”

“Like you don't know.”

“Show me.”

“You want to see it?”

“Blimey,” Roger rolled his eyes at the pair, “No chill here is there?”

“Lucy, inform the Cage we're heading down. You, English. Look after the girl. Go and canoodle or spoon or whatever it is you non Americans do.” Buckingham barked out his orders, “And you, Doctor with no name, come and see my pet.”

***

“We've tried everything. The creature has shielded itself but there's definite signs of life inside.”

“Inside? Inside what?” Freddie had followed him, still at gunpoint, down to the level he’d started on, luckily avoiding the TARDIS. Whatever was down there had sent the distress signal, so whatever Buckingham was doing to the creature was likely cruel.

“I've had to take the power down. The Metaltron is resting.”

“Metaltron?”

“Thought of it myself. Good, isn't it? Although I'd much prefer to find out it's real name.” He stops them by a heavy metal reinforced door, one with more controls that the regular corridor ones. He hits Freddie’s chest with some gauntlets, “Here, you'd better put these on. The last guy that touched it burst into flames.”

“I won't touch it then.”

“Go ahead, Doctor.” Lindsey smacked him on the back, “Impress me.”

Inside the cage was dark, Freddie struggled to get his bearings, hands going out in front of him. The room was silent, whatever was in there wasn’t moving or talking, at least not that he knew. “Look, I'm sorry about this. Buckingham might think he's clever, but never mind him. I've come to help. I'm the Doctor.”

He watched as a small circular white light lit up, his chest constricting in horror, backing away automatically, biting at his lip as the creature spoke, “...Doc...Tor…”

“Impossible.” Freddie’s back fell against the door.

“The Doctor?” The lights came on then, revealing the full sized monster in the chains. It hadn’t changed any since Freddie had last seen one, in the last days of the war, killing a whole planet. It was armoured, a death machine, eyestalk moving up and down as if it was scanning through him, powering up. “Exterminate! Exterminate!”

“Let me out!” Freddie punched at the door, the creature still calling for his death. “Buckingham! Let me out!”

“You are an enemy of the Daleks! You must be destroyed!”

Freddie shut his eyes, the door not budging as he begged for it to open… but it hadn’t killed him. He turned around slowly, breathing through his mouth, “It's not working.” He glanced at the useless gun, a dry laugh somewhere closer to a sob than it needed to be came out before he could stop it, followed by several others, “Oh, fantastic! Powerless! Look at you. The great space dustbin... How does it feel?”

“Keep back!” The Dalek retreats himself, Freddie advancing anyway, bounding with confidence.

“What for? What're you going to do to me, darling? If you can't kill, then what are you good for, Dalek?” Freddie grinned, “What's the point of you? You're nothing!”

“I am waiting for orders.”

“What does that mean?”

“I am a soldier. I was bred to receive orders.”

“Well you're never going to get any.” Freddie stood back, trying to compose himself, “Not ever.”

“I demand orders!” the dark metallic voice screeched back.

“They're never going to come!” Freddie snapped, “Your race is dead! You all burned, all of you... Ten million ships on fire. The entire Dalek race wiped out in one second.”

“You lie!”

“I watched it happen. I made it happen.”

“You destroyed us?” Was that remorse? Somewhere deep in the metal murderer was there sadness?

“I had no choice…”

“And what of the Time Lords?”

“Dead. They burnt with you. The end of the last great Time War. Everyone lost.”

“And the coward survived.”

“Oh, and I caught your little signal, love. Help me. Poor little thing.” He stuck his bottom lip out, “But there's no one else coming 'cause there's no one else left.”

“I am alone in the universe.”

“Yep.”

“So are you. We are the same.” The dalek moved its headstalk to stare straight into his brown eyes.

“We're not the same! I'm not…” he spotted something connected to the chains, “No, wait. Maybe we are. You're right. Yeah, okay. You've got a point. 'Cause I know what to do. I know what should happen. I know what you deserve. Exterminate.” He darted past to the lever, flicking it down to electrocute the dalek.

The last dalek in the universe, screaming for his mercy.

“Why should I? Why should I have mercy? You never did.”

The doors finally opened behind him, a mix of people running in to switch off the power, more guns being pointed in his face. “You've got to destroy it.”

“The last in the universe. And now I know your name. Dalek. Speak to me, Dalek. I am Lindsey Buckingham, now recognise me!” The Dalek had deactivated completely, but Freddie knew better, “Make it talk again. Whatever it takes.”

***

“Sorry about the mess.” Lucy cleared some stuff off a chair in her office to let Roger sit, “Buckingham sort of lets me do my own thing, so long as I deliver the goods... What do you think that is?”

Roger scanned over the thick mercurial lunch of metal Lucy had handed him, shrugging at her.

“Yeah. Yeah, but I think, well, I'm almost certain, it's from the hull of a spacecraft.” She seemed to be excited by that, “The thing is, it's all true. Everything the United Nations tries to keep quiet, spacecraft, aliens, visitors to Earth. They really exist.”

“That's amazing.” Roger smiled, as if he hadn’t just been on a space whale’s back in outer space.

“I know it sounds incredible, but I honestly believe the whole universe is just teeming with life.”

“I'm gobsmacked, yeah. And you do what, sit here and catalogue it?”

“Best job in the world.”

“Imagine if you could get out there.” Maybe he could ask Freddie to bring her with them, just for a short trip, “Travel amongst the stars and see it for real.”

“Yeah, I'd give anything. I don't think it's ever going to happen. Not in our lifetimes.”

“Oh, you never know. What about all those people who say they've been inside of spaceships and things and talked to aliens?”

“I think they're nutters.” Lucy tucked her hair up behind her ears, going through more papers over what once might’ve been a desk.

“So, how'd you end up here?”

“Buckingham has agents all over the world looking for geniuses to recruit.”  
“Oh, right.” Roger smirked, “You're a genius.”

“Sorry, but yeah. I can't help it. I was born clever. When I was eight, I logged onto the US Defence System.” She matched his smirk, “Nearly caused World War Three.”

“What, and that's funny, is it?”

“Well, you should've been there just to see them running about. Fantastic!”

“You sound like the Doctor.”

“Are eh,” She ducked her head to the side, “you and him?”

“No, we're just friends.”

“Good.”

“Why is it good?”

“It just is.” Lucy decided.

“So, wouldn't you rather be downstairs?” Roger moved on from the awkward tension, “I mean, you've got these bits of metal and stuff, but he's got a living creature down there.”

“Yeah. Yeah, well, I did ask, but he keeps it to himself... Although,” She grinned at him again, “if you're a genius, it doesn't take long to patch through on the comm system.”

“Let's have a look, then.” Roger nodded, leaning over her desk as she started to patch through.

“It doesn't do much, the alien. It's weird. It's kind of useless. It's just like this great big pepper pot.”

The image came into view, Lucy skipped through a few empty cameras before stopping on the Dalek, the creature still screaming and being electrocuted by some of the scientists.

“It's being tortured! Where's Freddie?” Roger wasn’t going to let this slip, “Take me down there now.”

***

“The metal's just battle armour.” Freddie explained, tone very clipped - Lindsey had no idea what he was dealing with, and the Dalek was still dangerous even in chains and armless. He’d need to get Roger back in the TARDIS before he killed it, “The real Dalek creature's inside.”

“What does it look like?”

“A nightmare. It's a mutation. The Dalek race was genetically engineered. Every single emotion was removed except hate.”

“Genetically engineered. By whom?” Lindsey leaned in, eyes aflame with everything over than the fear he should have.

“By a genius. By a man who was king of his own little world. You'd like him.”

“The records say it came from the sky like a meteorite. It fell to Earth on the Ascension Islands. Burnt in its crater for three days before anybody could get near it and all that time it was screaming. It must have gone insane.”

“It must have fallen through time. The only survivor.”

“You talked about a war?” Lindsey prompted.

“The Time War. The final battle between my people and the Dalek race.”

“But you survived, too.”

“Not by choice…” Freddie admitted, looking down.

“This means that the Dalek isn't the only alien on Earth. Doctor, there's you. The only one of your kind in existence.”

“Do you know what a Dalek is? A Dalek is honest.” He looked up, trying one again to get him to understand, “It does what it was born to do for the survival of its species. That creature in your dungeon is better than you.”

“But it’s trapped.”

“But it's woken up. It knows I'm here. It's going to get out.” Freddie glared at him, “I swear, no one on this base is safe. No one on this planet!”

***

“Level three access. Special clearance.” Lucy flashed her ID at the guards outside the cage, letting the pair of them in. “Don’t get too close.”

“Hello. Are you in pain? My name's Roger Taylor.” he jumped a little as the doors shut behind him, “I've got a friend, he can help. He's called Freddie, goes by the Doctor. What's your name?”

“Yes.”

“What?”

“I am in pain. They torture me, but still they fear me.” It sounded so sad, Roger didn’t know how to help, “Do you fear me?”

“No.”

“I am dying.”

“No, we can help.”

“I welcome death. But I am glad that before I die I have met a human who was not afraid.”

“Isn't there anything I can do?” Roger shook his head.

“My race is dead, and I shall die alone.” 

Roger let his hand reach out to the creature’s head, hoping to comfort it even though it was metal-

“Roger no!” Lucy pulled him back, his hand print scorched onto the metal.

“Genetic material extrapolated. Initiate cellular reconstruction!” The creature started to shift around, chains breaking as it gained power.

Behind them the guards entered the room, pointing their guns at it just to be shot at. Lucy pulled Roger away towards the door as the bullets began to rain down on the creature, sirens going off above them, red lights flashing around the white halls. Roger turned to look as the creature killed the last of the guards, heading straight for him and Lucy.


	6. Dalek - two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Second part of Dalek, and Roger and Freddie pick up a new companion - Lucy

“I've sealed the compartment.” Linsey dismissed, watching Roger and Lucy run up the corridors with one of the guards, the Dalek hot on their tales, “It can't get out, that lock's got a billion combinations.”

“A Dalek's a genius.” Freddie snapped, “It can calculate a thousand billion combinations in one second flat.”

“We're losing power. It's draining the base.” Lindsey realised, staring aat his computer screen, “Oh, my God. It's draining entire power supplies for the whole of Utah.”

“It's downloading.”

“Downloading what?” The American looked up wide eyed.

“That Dalek just absorbed the entire internet.” Freddie shook his head, “It knows everything. We've only got emergency power. It's eaten everything else. You've got to kill it now!”

***

“We’re civilians!” Lucy ran ahead of him, flashing her personnel badge at the armed guards, “Let us through!”

Roger had just followed her through, turning last minute to see the guards go see through as their skeletons became exposed like an X-ray, dropping down heavily to the floor. Dead. “Keep moving, Lucy.”

They ran up the corridor, turning the corners of the building, the sound of the dalek’s gun overpowering the bullets, until a painful silence broke out. “Shit…” Roger looked around, suddenly taking off towards some railings, “Stairs! That's more like it. It hasn't got legs. It's stuck!”

He pulled Lucy up with him as they climbed, looking down on the alien once they reached the top.

“Great big alien death machine defeated by a flight of stairs.” Lucy let out a single breathy laugh, peering down at the-

“Elevate.”

“Oh my God.” Roger blinked as the machine started to float up towards them, it’s eyestalk fixating on him for a long moment. “Run!”

***

“I thought you were a great expert, Doctor. If you're so impressive, then why not just reason with this Dalek?” Buckingham glared at him, spitting as he spoke, “It must be willing to negotiate. There must be something it needs. Everything needs something.”

“What's the nearest town?”

“Salt Lake City.”

“Population?”

“Two hundred thousand.”

“All dead.” Freddie matched his glare, “If the Dalek gets out, it'll murder every living creature. That's all it needs.”

“But why would it do that?”

“Because it honestly believes they should die. Human beings are different, and anything different is wrong. It's the ultimate in racial cleansing and you, Buckingham, you've let it loose!” Freddie took a breath… maybe he’d let it loose, maybe he wasn’t careful enough in the war, didn’t prepare for survivors, “The Dalek's surrounded by a force field. The bullets are melting before they even hit home, but it's not indestructible. If you concentrate your fire, you might get through. Aim for the dome, the head, the eyepiece. That's the weak spot.”

***

“It was looking at me.”

“Yeah, it wants to slaughter us.” Lucy didn’t look back as they ran, all the guards they came across falling dead as soon as the Dalek came.

“I know, but it was looking right at me.”

“So? It's just a sort of metal eye thing. It's looking all around.”

“I don't know. It's like there's something inside, looking at me, like, like it knows me.”

***

“We've got visuals.” Buckingham moved to the screen of his computer, bouncing the device so it projected against the wall. The image was of the guards, shooting at the dalek fruitlessly, the sprinklers going off around them.

It only took one shot from the Daleks weapon to electrocute all twenty of them.

“It wants us to see.” Freddie answered. He’d left Roger out there, all by himself. He’d left him to die.

“Perhaps it's time for a new strategy. Maybe we should consider abandoning this place.” Buckingham muttered, “...Except there's no power to the helipad. We can't get out.”

“You said we could seal the vault.” Freddie raised an eyebrow, “We’ve still got emergency power, we can re-route that to the bulkhead doors.”

“We'd have to bypass the security codes. That would take a computer genius.” Buckingham pointed out, a grin creeping up his face, “Good thing you've got me, then.”

“You want to help?”

“I don't want to die. Simple as that. And nobody knows this software better than me-”

“I shall speak only to the Doctor.” Freddie looked up at the screen, the Dalek now staring straight at the security camera.

“You're going to get rusty.”

“I fed off the DNA of Roger Taylor. Extrapolating the biomass of a time traveller regenerated me.”

“What's your next fucking trick?” Freddie eyed it carefully.

“I have been searching for the Daleks.”

“Yeah, I saw. downloading the internet. What did you find?” Almost as if they were chatting, Freddie thought, almost as if they were equals.

“I scanned your satellites and radio telescopes....There was nothing. Where shall I get my orders now?”

“You're just a soldier without commands.”

“Then I shall follow the Primary Order, the Dalek instinct to destroy, to conquer.

“What for? What's the point?” Freddie shook his head, the screen making them look the same size, “Don't you see it's all gone? Everything you were, everything you stood for.” Everything they both stood for. Everything he had been.

“Then what should I do?” The last survivor of the Daleks, asking thier sworn enemy for orders, like the end of all things had never even began.

“If you want orders, follow this one. Kill yourself.”

“The Daleks must survive!”

“The Daleks have failed!” He snapped, “Why don't you finish the job and make the Daleks extinct. Rid the Universe of your filth. Why don't you just die?”

“...You would make a good Dalek.”

Freddie stood back, a tear running down his face, that was true. It wasn’t the Daleks that had wiped out all of the Timelords, his family, his entire race.

It wasn’t the Daleks that had made that choice.

***

“This isn't the best time.” Roger picked up his phone when it rang, him and Lucy still running. The alien was still chasing them, but it seemed to have paused somewhere.

“Where are you?” Freddie seemed different, a twinge in his voice Roger hadn’t heard, another mask he didn’t have time to uncover.

“Level forty nine.”

“You've got to keep moving. The vault's being sealed off up at level forty six.”

“Can't you stop them closing?

“I'm the one who's closing them. I can't wait and I can't help you.”

“We're nearly there. Give us two seconds.” Roger could see the final door, Lucy was running just ahead of him. Just another hundred yards or so...

“Come on!” Lucy called behind her, diving under the bulkhead with just a small gap between it and the ground. “Roger!”

“Rog, where are you?” Freddie called down the phone at him, “Roger, did you make it?”

“Sorry, I was a bit slow.” He leaned on the shut bulkhead, breathing heavily, knowing the Dalek was coming around the corner, “See you, then, Fred. It wasn't your fault. Remember that, okay? It wasn't your fault… And do you know what?I wouldn't have missed it for the world-”

“Exterminate!”

***

“I killed him.” Freddie heard the line go dead, dropping the phone onto the table again.

“I'm sorry-”

“I said I'd protect him. He was only here because of me, and you're sorry?” Freddie rounded on him, “I could've killed that Dalek in it's cell, but you stopped me.”

“It was the prize of my collection!”  
“Your collection? But was it worth it? Worth all those men's deaths? Worth Roger? Let me tell you something, Buckingham. Mankind goes into space to explore, to be part of something greater.”

“Exactly! I wanted to touch the stars!”

“You just want to drag the stars down and stick them underground, underneath tons of sand and dirt, and label them. You're about as far from the stars as you can get.” Freddie barked at him, “And you took Roger down with you. He was nineteen years old.”

***

Roger followed the Dalek, his phone still smashed and dead in his pocket. That thing had an impossibly accurate aim, there’s no way it missed, “Go on then, kill me. Why're you doing this?”

“I am armed. I will kill. It is my purpose.”

“They're all dead because of you.” Roger shook his head, “All those guards.”

“They are dead because of us.”

“And now what? What're you waiting for?”

“I feel your fear.” The Dalek told him, voice a little less mechanic than before.

“What do you expect?”

“Daleks do not fear. Must not fear.” It shot at the door, letting them through to another room, “You gave me life. What else have you given me? I am contaminated.”

***

“You were quick on your feet, leaving Roger behind.” Lucy had ran straight into the timelord when she came in, still running from the whole scene.

“I'm not the one who sealed the vault-” The screen projector came back to life, the Dalek standing guard beside Roger.

“Open the bulkhead or Roger Taylor dies.”

“You're alive?” Freddie grinned, “I thought you were dead.”

“Can't get rid of me.”

“Open the bulkhead!” The Dalek snapped.

“Don't do it!” Roger shook his head, “I’m not worth it.”

“What use are emotions if you will not save the man you love?” The Dalek called out, almost jeering. Understanding the pain of emotions. It understood something Daleks never could.

“I killed him once. I can't do it again.” Freddie reached over, typing in the override on Buckingham’s computer, the Dalek going forward with Roger in tow.

“We can kill it when it gets here.” Lucy decided, “The weapons in my office are still working.”

***

“Broken. Broken. Hairdryer.” Freddie threw the ‘weapons’ behind him as he dug through Lucy’s collection, not as promising as she probably thought. “Broken.”

“Buckingham tends to dispose of his staff, and when he does he wipes their memory. I kept this stuff in case I needed to fight my way out one day.”

“What, you in a fight? I'd like to see that.”

“I could do.”

“What're you going to do, throw your A-Levels at 'em, Lucy?” He rolled his eyes, finally picking up something massive and useful, “Oh, yes. Lock and load.”

***

“I'm begging you, don't kill them.” Roger pleaded, stuck trapped in the corner of the lift with the alien, going up to the top level where the other’s were “You didn't kill me.”

“But why not? Why are you alive? My function is to kill.” The Dalek was getting angry, more and more hurt appearing in it’s voice, “What am I? What am I?”

“Don't move. Don't do anything.” Roger called out as soon as the doors opened, “It's beginning to question itself.”

“You tortured me.” It looked at Lindsey, “Why?”

“I wanted to help you. I just, I don't know. I was trying to help. I thought if we could get through to you, if we could mend you. I wanted you better.” he backed into a corner as the creature came closer and closer, right into his face, “I'm sorry. I'm so sorry! I swear, I just wanted you to talk!”

“Then hear me talk now. Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate-”

“Don't do it! Don't kill him! You don't have to do this anymore.” Roger interupted, amazed when it stopped from killing the man, “There must be something else, not just killing. What else is there? What do you want?”

“I want freedom.”

“Come with me then.” Roger told it, stepping back into the lift. It could very well kill him, but he’d die anyway if he didn’t at least give his plan an attempt.

***

“You're out.” The top level, sun shining through the small window. The Dalek seemed to pause, taking it in before shooting at the ceiling, the stonework crumbling until more sunlight streamed in, falling onto it’s cold metal casing, “You made it. I never thought I'd feel the sunlight again.”

“How does it feel?” The Dalek answered it’s own question in a way, its metal casing opening up and revealing a mutation, a octopus looking thing with one eye, a tendril held out in the light. The eye blinked, basking in the light.

“Get out of the way.” Freddie appeared behind them in the lift, massive gun in his arms, cutting the silence with a hard thump, “Roger, get out of the way now!”

“No.” Roger stood in front of the Dalek, “I won't let you do this.”

“That thing killed hundreds of people.”

“It's not the one pointing the gun at me.”

“I've got to do this. I've got to end it.” Freddie insisted, hands shaking as he let the gun drop a little, “The Daleks destroyed my home, my people. I've got nothing left.”

“Look at it.”

“What's it doing?”

“It's the sunlight, that's all it wants.”

“But it can't.”

“It couldn't kill Buckingham, it couldn't kill me. It's changing. What about you, Doctor?” Roger asked, right now he wasn’t Freddie. He was something else. “What the hell are you changing into?”

“I couldn't. I wasn't. Oh, Roger…” Freddie dropped the gun entirely, “...They're all dead.”

“Why do we survive?” The Dalek croaked.

“I don't know.”

“I am the last of the Daleks.”

“You're not even that. Roger did more than regenerate you. You've absorbed his DNA. You're mutating.”

“Into what?

“Something new.” Something the Daleks would despise, “I'm sorry.”

“Isn't that better?” Roger asked.

“Not for a Dalek.”

“I can feel so many ideas. So much darkness.” The Dalek rambled, “Roger, give me orders. Order me to die.”

“I can't do that.”

“This is not life. This is sickness. I shall not be like you.” The Dalek wailed, the pain of it thriving, “Order my destruction! Obey! Obey! Obey!”

“Do it.” Roger said quickly, eyes going red. Was it worth it? Letting the killer die?

“Are you frightened, Roger Taylor?” The creature inside seemed to look at him again, eyes like a child.

“Yeah.”

“So am I.” The Dalek’s eye shut, the body armour starting to close up around it again, “Exterminate.”

***

“Two hundred personnel dead, and all because of you, sir.” Lucy had let in more guards from the base above, letting them arrest Buckingham, “Take him away, wipe his memory, and leave him by the road someplace.”

“You can't do this to me.”

“And by tonight you’ll be a homeless, brainless junkie living on the streets of San Diego, Seattle, Sacramento. Someplace beginning with S.”

***

“Is that the end of it, the Time War?” Roger finally let himself relax now that they were outside the tardis.

“I'm the only one left. I win. How about that?”

“The Dalek survived. Maybe some of your people did too.”

“I'd know. In here, darling.” He tapped his head, “Feels like there's no one.”

“Well then, good thing I'm not going anywhere.”

“Yeah.” Freddie smiled, grabbing the key to the Tardis-

“We'd better get out. They're closing down the base.” Lucy jogged down towards them from where they were dragging Lindsey off, “Going to fill it full of cement, like it never existed.” 

“About time.”

“I'll have to go back home.”

“Better hurry up then.” Freddie told her, “Next flight to Ontario leaves at fifteen hundred hours.”

“Lucy was saying that all her life she wanted to see the stars.” Roger smiled at the timelord, linking arms with Lucy.

“Tell her to go and stand outside, then.”

“She's all on her own, Fred, and she did help.”

“She left you down there.

“So did you.”

“What're you talking about?” Lucy interupted, “We've got to leave.”

“Plus, she's a bit pretty.”

“I hadn't noticed.” Roger grinned.

“On your own head.” Freddie signed, opening the door.

“What're you doing? I said cement. I wasn't joking. We're going to get sealed in.” Lucy glared as they entered the small wooden box. “What're you doing standing inside a box? Rog?”


	7. The Long Game

“So, it's two hundred thousand, and it's a spaceship. No, wait a minute, space station,” Freddie whispered into Roger’s ear, just out of range of Lucy, “and er, go and try the first gate on the left gate. Off you go.”

“Right.” Roger grinned, heading towards the door confidently, “Lucy? Out you come.”

“Oh, my God.” Lucy looked out, the space station was massive, high walls with numbers painted on, dozens of people walking about eating and working, chattering and running, “Where are we?”

“Good question. Let's see. So, er, judging by the architecture,” Roger faked a thought process, “I'd say we're around the year two hundred thousand. If you listen… Engines. We're on some sort of space station. Yeah, definitely a space station. It's a bit warm in here. They could turn the heating down. Tell you what - let's try that gate. Come on!”

Lucy followed him, looking around at the place, eyes wide.

“Here we go! And this is…” He’d ran out of things to say about it now, looking out at a large glass window showing the earth, “I'll let Fred describe it.”

“The Fourth great and bountiful Human Empire. And there it is, planet Earth at it's height. Covered with mega-cities, five moons, population ninety six billion. The hub of a galactic domain stretching across a million planets, a million species, with mankind right in the middle.”

“That’s not real.” Lucy shook her head, hands going out to the glass.

“Come on, Lucy. Open your mind.” Freddie held her shoulders, “You're going to like this. Fantastic period of history. The human race at its most intelligent. Culture, art, politics. This era has got fine food too.”

He pointed Lucy in the direction of something she recognised, a burger van. A burger van in space. Christ. She walked forward a few paces, listening to the thick cockney accent of the server-

“Thank you very much indeed. Somebody there? That's great. What do you want, love? All right, keep moving. I'll be with you lot in a minute. Here you are. One at a time. What now, what was it? Kronkburger with cheese, kronkburger with pajatos. Do you want a drink? Oi, you, mate. Stop pushing. Get back. I said, back.”

“Fine cuisine?” Roger side glanced Freddie, “I can get this up the back of the warf.”

“My watch must be wrong.” He glanced at it again, “No, it's fine. It's weird.”

“That's what comes of showing off. Your history's not as good as you thought it was.”

“My history's perfect.”

“Well, obviously not.”

“They're all human.” Lucy came back to them, “What about the millions of planets, the millions of species? Where are they?”

“Good question. Actually, that is a good question.” Freddie nodded, “Luce, darling, you must be starving.”

“No, I'm just a bit time sick.”

“No, you just need a bit of grub, Roger you too,” He looked around to see people paying with thin metal bars, “Money. We need money. Back in a sec.”

“How’s he getting money?” Lucy watched him go, buzzing a weird blue light at the machine, getting a handful of the things people were paying with. “Is that legal?”

“I’d ignore that,” Roger nudged her, “Pocket money, as long as we don’t spend it all on sweets.”

“How does it work?”

“Go and find out.” Freddie handed them one each, “Stop nagging me. The thing is, Lucy, time travel's like visiting Paris. You can't just read the guide book, you've got to throw yourself in. Eat the food, use the wrong verbs, get charged double and end up kissing complete strangers. Or is that just me? Stop asking questions, go and do it. Off you go, then. Your first date.”

He shoved Lucy and Roger in the direction of the van, wiggling his eyebrows at Roger. That was them out of the way, now he had to find out why there weren't any aliens on the station.

“Er, this is going to sound daft,” He found the nearest couple that weren’t queueing for the van, “But can you tell me where I am, darlings?”

“Floor One Three Nine.” The woman in the suit had a sour expression and rolled her eyes at him, gesturing to the massive numbers in the background, “Could they write it any bigger?”

“Floor one three nine of what?”

“Must've been a hell of a party.”

“You're on Satellite Five.” The second woman smiled, a much softer expression.

“What's Satellite Five.” Freddie raised an eyebrow.

“Come on, how could you get on board without knowing where you are?” The angrier one asked.

“Look at me. I'm stupid.”

“Hold on, wait a minute, Tia.” The nice one looked at him, “Are you a test? Some sort of management test kind of thing?”

“You've got me.” Freddie nodded, holding up the psychic paper, “Well done. You're too clever for me.”

“We were warned about this in basic training. All workers have to be versed in company promotion.”

“Right, fire away, ask your questions.” Tia sighed, “If it gets me to Floor five hundred I'll do anything.”

“Why, what happens on Floor five hundred?” Freddie asked, pocketing the paper.

“The walls are made of gold. And you should know, Mister Management. So, this is what we do.” Tia went to a monitor on the wall, swiping around on it to show a lot of articles and news sites, “Latest news, sandstorms on the new Venus archipelago. Two hundred dead. Glasgow water riots into their third day. Space lane seventy seven closed by sunspot activity. And over on the Bad Wolf channel, the Face of Bo has just announced he's pregnant.”

“We are the news. We're the journalists.” The nice one smiled again, “We write it, package it and sell it. Six hundred channels”

***

“Try this. It's called Zaphic.” Roger took a seat next to Lucy, offering her a drink, “It's nice, it's like a, er, Slush Puppy.”

“What flavour?”

“Sort of beef?”

“Jesus…”

“Oi!” Freddie waved them over from across the deck, “Mutt and Jeff! Over here!” 

They ran over, trying not to bump into anyone. They followed Freddie into a room with a chair in the middle, sort of like a dentist’s chair with some sort of light above it. Around it there was a circular table with panels for six people, all of which had their hands in the handprint shaped button type things.

“Now, everybody behave. We have a management inspection.” Tia addressed the room, getting onto the chair in the middle, she turned to look at them finally, “How do you want it, by the book?”

“Right from scratch, thanks.” Freddie nodded.

“Okay. So, ladies, gentlemen, multi-sex, undecided or robot, my name is Tia. That's Tia with an I and an A, in case you want to write to Floor five hundred praising me, and please do. Now, please feel free to ask any questions. The process of news gathering must be open, honest, and beyond bias. That's company policy.

“Actually, it's the law.”

“Yes, thank you, Suki.” Tia narrowed her eyes at the girl who’d been with her at the start, “Okay, keep it calm. Don't show off for the guests. Here we go.”

Roger blinked as the people around the outside, put their hands on the handprints, lights lighting up around them. Then Tia clicked her fingers. Roger could hear Lucy gasp beside him, Tia’s head opening with a little hatch on the front of her forehead, a stream of light channeling through into her head.

“Compressed information, streaming into her. Reports from every city, every country, every planet,” Freddie told them, “and they all get packaged inside her head. She becomes part of the software. Her brain is the computer.”

“If it all goes through her, she must be a genius.”

“Nah, she wouldn't remember any of it. There's too much. Her head would blow up. The brain's the processor. As soon as it closes, she forgets.”

“So, what about all these people round the edge?” Roger raised an eyebrow.

“They've all got tiny little chips in their head, connecting them to her and they transmit six hundred channels. Every single fact in the Empire beams out of this place. Now that's what I call power.”

***

“This technology, it's amazing.” Lucy looked around, eyeing the computers, the three heading back into the central hallway along with the others, Tia and the other girl bickering still.

“This technology's wrong.” Freddie shook his head.

“Trouble?”

“Oh, yeah.” Freddie grinned.

“Promotion.” One of the walls lit up with the word, the whole hall lighting up with the word, the room going silent in anticipation. “Promotion for Suki Macrae Cantrell. Please proceed to Floor five hundred.”

“How the hell did you manage that?” Tia frowned, “I'm above you.”

“I don't know. I just applied on the off chance and they've said yes.”

“That's so not fair. I've been applying to Floor five hundred for three years.” Tia followed her to the lift, the time travellers following behind as well.

“Tia, I'm going to miss you.” Suki hugged her, turning to look at Freddie, “Floor five hundred, thank you.”

“I didn't do anything.”

“Well, you're my lucky charm.”

“All right. I'll hug anyone.”

“Here, Rog, I’m going to go back to the observation deck. Soak it in, you know.” Lucy patted his arm, “Pretend I'm a citizen of the year two hundred thousand.”

“Do you want me to come with you?”

“No, no, you stick with Freddie. You'd rather be with him. Anyway, I'll be on the deck.”

“Here you go.” He took her hand, “Take the Tardis key. You know, just in case it gets a bit too much.”

“Yeah, like it's not weird in there.” Lucy joked, jogging away with the key.

“Oh, my God, I've got to go.” Suki squealed, pulling Roger into a hug, running into the lift, “I can't keep them waiting. I'm sorry. Say goodbye to Steve for me. Bye!”

“She was talking like you'll never see her again. She's only going upstairs.”

“We won't.” Tia looked at Freddie, “Once you go to Floor five hundred you never come back.”

“Have you ever been up there?”

“I can't. You need a key for the lift, and you only get a key with promotion. No one gets to five hundred except for the chosen few. Look, they only give us twenty minutes maintenance. Can't you give it a rest?”

“But you've never been to another floor?” Roger shook his head, “Not even one floor down?”

“I went to floor sixteen when I first arrived. That's medical. That's when I got my head done, and then I came straight here. Satellite Five, you work, eat and sleep on the same floor. That's it, that's all... You're not management, are you.”

“At last. She's clever.” Freddie smirked.

“Yeah, well, whatever it is, don't involve me. I don't know anything.”

“Why's all the crew human?” Roger asked, looking around at them.

“What's that got to do with anything?”

“There's no aliens on board. Why?”

“I don't know.” Tia shrugged, “No real reason. They're not banned or anything. I suppose immigration's tightened up. It's had to, what with all the threats.”

“What threats?” Freddie frowned, leaning on the wall.

“I don't know all of them. Usual stuff. And the price of space warp doubled so that kept the visitors away. Oh, and the government on Chavic Five's collapsed, so that lot stopped coming, you see.” Tia told them, “Just lots of little reasons, that's all.”

“Adding up to one great big fact, and you didn't even notice.”

“Freddie, I think if there was any kind of conspiracy, Satellite Five would have seen it. We see everything.”

“I can see better, darling.” He smirked, “This society's the wrong shape, even the technology.”

“It's cutting edge.”

“It's backwards. There's a great big door in your head. You should've chucked this out years ago.”

“So,” Roger raised an eyebrow, “what do you think's going on?”

“It's not just this space station, it's the whole attitude. It's the way people think. The great and bountiful Human Empire's stunted. Something's holding it back.”

“And how would you know?” Tia crossed her arms.

“Trust me, humanity's been set back about ninety years.” Freddie told her, “When did Satellite Five start broadcasting?”

“Ninety one years ago.”

***

Tia had ended up following them as they wandered back towards the lift, taking the panel off to look at it, Freddie pulling at the wires of it all to poke the sonic screwdriver at them.

“We are so going to get in trouble. You're not allowed to touch the mainframe.” Tia huffed, “You're going to get told off.”

“Rog, tell her to button it.”

“You can't just vandalise the place.” Tia continued, “Someone's going to notice!”

“Hopefully.” Freddie grinned, the lift doors opening.

“This is nothing to do with me. I'm going back to work.” Tia stepped back, shaking her head before moving back towards them, “ I can't just leave you, can I?”

“If you want to be useful, get them to turn the heating down. It's boiling.” Roger whined, pulling at his shirt to try cool off a little, “What's wrong with this place? Can't they do something about it?”

“I don't know. We keep asking. Something to do with the turbine.”

“Something to do with the turbine.” Freddie mimicked in a highpitched voice, pulling at yet more wires.

“Well, I don't know!”

“Exactly. I give up on you, Tia. Now, Roger. Look at Rog. Roger is asking the right kind of question.”

“Oh, thank you, dear.” Roger grinned.

“Why is it so hot?”

“One minutes you're worried about the Empire and the next it's the central heating!” Tia huffed again, looking about ready to smack the pair of them.

“Well, never underestimate plumbing. Plumbing's very important.” Freddie tapped at the screen with a handful of cables in his hand, something sparking away behind it, “Here we go. Satellite Five, pipes and plumbing. Look at the layout.”

“This is ridiculous. You've got access to the computer's core. You can look at the archive, the news, the stock exchange and you're looking at pipes?” Tia looked at it, something about the map catching her eye, “The ventilation system. Cooling ducts, ice filters, all working flat out channelling massive amounts of heat down.”

“All the way from the top.” Roger nodded, “Floor five hundred.”

“Something up there is generating tons and tons of heat.” Freddie agreed.

“Well, I don't know about you, but I feel like I'm missing out on a party. It's all going on upstairs.” Roger smiled, glancing at Tia, “Fancy a trip?”

“You can't.” She shook her head, “You need a key.”

“Keys are just codes, and I've got the codes right here.” He waved the screwdriver at her face, “Here we go. Override two one five point nine.”

“How come it's given you the code?”

“Someone up there likes me.”

“Come on. Come with us.” Roger waved her over, stepping into the lift beside Freddie.

“No way.”

“Bye then,” Freddie blew her a kiss, jamming the up button with his other hand.

“Well, don't mention my name. When you get in trouble, just don't involve me.” Tia called, already starting to walk away, shaking her head as she left completely.

“That's her gone. Lucy's given up.” Freddie mumbled as the doors shut, “Looks like it's just you and me.”

“Yeah.”

“Good?”

“Yep.”

***

“I told you it was painless.” The nurse helped Lucy up off the chair, “No scarring, you see? Perfect success.”

“How do I activate it?”

“It's a personal choice. Some people whistle. I know one man who triggers it with O, Danny Boy.” The nurse smiled, “But you're set on default for now. That's a click of the fingers.”

“So you mean, I just…” Lucy clicked her fingers, the little hatch on her forehead opening up. “And I can read all of world history from here? Every known fact about computing and technology?”

“You just need to head to one of the panels, open the stream.” The nurse told her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Thanks to Lucy and Tia for lending me their names for the extras!


	8. The Long Game part two

“The walls are not made of gold.” Freddie looked around the cold stone walls of the dark top floor, ice forming along them, “You should go back downstairs.”

“Tough.” Roger smirked, walking forward until his eyes met something that wiped the smile off of his face.

“I started without you. This is fascinating. Satellite Five contains every piece of information within the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. Birth certificates, shopping habits, bank statements, but you two, you don't exist.” The man was just as frosty as the walls, white hair covered in snowflakes. Behind him the computers had people at them, their hands in the same indented buttons as the one’s Tia had shown them down stairs, Suki now among them - all frozen to the spot. “Not a trace. No birth, no job, not the slightest kiss. How can you walk through the world and not leave a single footprint?”

“Suki. Suki! Hello? Can you hear me?” Roger ran past him to the girl, shaking her shoulders, “Suki? What have you done to her?”

“I think she's dead.” Freddie muttered quietly.

“She's working.” Roger shook his head, waving his hand in front of her eyes.

“They've all got chips in their head, and the chips keep going, like puppets.”

“Oh! You're full of information.” The frosty man laughed, “But it's only fair we get some information back, because apparently, you're no one. It's so rare not to know something. Who are you?”

“It doesn't matter, because we're off.” Freddie nodded to Roger to follow, “Nice to meet you. Come on.”

“Tell me who you are.” The man insisted, Suki’s arm grabbing Roger’s as he tried to leave.

“Since that information's keeping us alive, I'm hardly going to say, am I?”

“Well, perhaps my Editor in Chief can convince you otherwise.” The man, obviously the regular Editor, smiled, “It may interest you to know that this is not the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. In fact, it's not actually human at all. It's merely a place where humans happen to live.”

There was a harsh growl above them, snarling at his words. Roger and Freddie looked up, a hanging giant lump clung to the ceiling, large mouth full of teeth.  
“Yeah. Yeah, sorry. It's a place where humans are allowed to live by kind permission of my client.”

“You mean that thing's in charge of Satellite Five?” Roger blinked.

“That thing, as you put it, is in charge of the human race. For almost a hundred years, mankind has been shaped and guided,” The editor nodded, “His knowledge and ambition strictly controlled by it's broadcast news, edited by my superior, your master, and humanity's guiding light, the mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe. I call him Max.”

“He’s the puppet master for the human race,” Freddie realised. “Create a climate of fear and it's easy to keep the borders closed. It's just a matter of emphasis. The right word in the right broadcast repeated often enough can destabilise an economy, invent an enemy, change a vote.”

“So all the people on Earth are like, slaves.” Roger looked between them.

“Well, now, there's an interesting point. Is a slave a slave if he doesn't know he's enslaved?”

“Yes.”

“Oh. I was hoping for a philosophical debate.” The editor pouted, “Is that all I'm going to get? Yes?”

“Yes.” Freddie repeated drily.

“You're no fun. But, come on. Isn't it a great system? You've got to admire it, just a little bit.”

“You can't hide something on this scale.” Roger pointed out, “Somebody must have noticed.”

“From time to time, someone, yes, but the computer chip system allows me to see inside their brains. I can see the smallest doubt and crush it.” The editor told them, “Then they just carry on, living life, strutting about downstairs and all over the surface of the Earth like they're so individual, when of course, they're not. They're just cattle. In that respect, the Jagrafess hasn't changed a thing.”

Roger spotted someone shuffling around behind the Editor… It was Tia. She must’ve followed them up there, “What about you?” Roger said quickly so he wouldn’t turn around, “You're not a Jagrabelly.”

“Jagrafess.”

“Jagrafess. You're not a Jagrafess. You're human.”

“Yeah, well, simply being human doesn't pay very well.”

“But you couldn't have done this all on your own.” Roger eyed him.

“No. I represent a consortium of banks. Money prefers a long-term investment. Also, the Jagrafess needed a little hand to install himself.”

“No wonder, a creature that size.” Freddie nodded to it, “What's his life span?”

“Three thousand years.”

“That's one hell of a metabolism generating all that heat. That's why Satellite Five's so hot. You pump it out of the creature, channel it downstairs. Jagrafess stays cool, it stays alive. Satellite Five is one great big life support system.”

“That's why you're so dangerous.” The editor pointed out, “Knowledge is power, but you remain unknown. Who are you?” The man stood back, letting the creature from the ceiling try to grab at them, Roger nearly getting bitten.

“Leave him alone. I'm the Doctor, he's Roger Taylor. We're nothing, we're just wandering.”

“Tell me who you are!”

“I just said!”

“Yes, but who do you work for?”Thee editor snapped, “Who sent you? Who knows about us? Who exactly… Time Lord…”

“What?”

“Oh, yes. The last of the Time Lords in his travelling machine.” He smiled, “Oh, with his little human boy from long ago”

“You don't know what you're talking about.” Freddie refused, “Someone's been telling you lies.”

“Young miss Lucy?” He snapped his fingers again, allowing one of the screens to come on, Lucy’s head open and letting in the information like they’d seen Tia do.

“What the hell's she done? They're reading her mind. She's telling them everything.”

“And through her, I know everything about you. Every piece of information in his head is now mine. And you have infinite knowledge, Doctor… Freddie, The Human Empire is tiny compared to what you've seen in your T A R D I S. Tardis.”

“Well, you'll never get your hands on it. I'll die first.”

“Die all you like. I don't need you. Today, we are the headlines. We can rewrite history. We could prevent mankind from ever developing.”

“And no one's going to stop you because you've bred a human race that doesn't bother to ask questions.” Freddie growled, “Stupid little slaves, believing every lie. They'll just trot right into the slaughter house if they're told it's made of gold.”

“Disengage safety.” Tia whispered, somewhat forgotten about, while she wired herself into the chair in the newsroom, hatch open. “Maximum access. Override Floor one three nine… and spike!”

They watched as the screen on Lucy showed the infor stream being disconnected, letting her go.

“She's thinking!” Freddie grinned, “She's using what she knows, everything I told her about Satellite Five. The pipes, the filters, she's reversing it. Look at that.”

“It's getting hot.” Roger pointed out, the ice on the walls visily disappearing.

“She's venting the heat up here. The Jagrafess needs to stay cool and now it's sitting on top of a volcano.”

“Yes, I'm trying, sir,” The editor seemed to be answering the creature, pushing Suki out of the way to frantically try to undo what was happening, “but I don't know how she did it. It's impossible. A member of staff with an idea.”

“Oi, tart, want to bank on a certainty?” Freddie pulled Roger behind him, calling out to the editor, “Massive heat in a massive body, massive bang. See you in the headlines!”

Freddie snapped his fingers, releasing Tia, pulling her along with them back into the lift, hearing the creature explode as they made their way down.

“We're just going to go. I hate tidying up.” Freddie told her, “Too many questions. You'll manage.”

“You'll have to stay and explain it. No one's going to believe me.”

“Oh, they might start believing a lot of things now. The human race should accelerate. All back to normal.” Freddie smiled, stepping out of the lift, heading back towards the TARDIS where Lucy was waiting. “Goodluck.”

“What about Lucy? We can’t drop her off like that,” Roger told him, “She’d got a chip.”

“She shouldn’t have done that,” he said, making sure she’d hear it, “She can’t go back.”

“What’re you going to do to me?” Lucy blinked.

“I’m taking you somewhere,” Freddie flicked at the controls of the tardis, “There’s people that can deal with you.”

“Are they going to… Are you leaving me to die?”

Freddie didn’t answer, taking off into the vortex again, landing her after a few minutes. He opened the doors to a military base-

“Freddie, what,” Roger looked at him, suddenly worried he might actually kill her, “What are you doing?”

“This is UNIT, unified intelligence task force,” He replied, “I’ve an old friend here, the Brigadier. He’ll help you. You could do a lot from here with the information you stole.”


End file.
